3 so THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book VL 



stanza gave wide-spread currency (canto v. i6). By 

 the name of " Belted Will," however, in whatever way 

 it originated, he is now popularly known, and by the 

 title of Lord Warden he is still traditionally designated. 

 Tradition tells us also, and the statement finds a place 

 even in the sober pages of the historian, that he main- 

 tained a garrison of one hundred and forty men at 

 Naworth ; whilst stories, based upon the rough-and- 

 ready chastisement which he is supposed to have 

 meted out to the banditti who infested that wild 

 country, still meet with unhesitating acceptance and 

 undoubting belief. What dweller on the Border 

 refuses, for example, to give credence to that grim tale 

 of the summary punishment dealt out to some unlucky 

 wight, by reason of a peevish word from the lips of 

 the Lord Warden being only too literally interpreted ? 

 " Hang him ! " was the hasty ejaculation of Belted 

 Will, when disturbed, in the library which still bears 

 his name, by the tidings that a thief had been caught 

 in some act of plunder or spoliation, and by the natural 

 inquiry, how it might please my Lord to deal with 

 him. The man-at-arms, who brought the intelligence 

 and heard the response, retired perfectly satisfied that 

 he had received a precise and definite order ; and 

 when, after some brief interval of time, my lord 

 descended from his tower, he found the unhappy 

 malefactor suspended either from some extemporized 

 gallows in the court-yard, or from a bough of some 

 neighbouring tree. It was a case of what was known 

 on the Scotch border as " Jedburgh Justice," i.e. hang- 

 ing the culprit first and trying him afterwards. 



