36 Anniversary Address. 



without hope of remedye ; which I pray our Lord God to 

 continue ! " * The unhappy inhabitants of the Borders, 

 abandoned to their fate, nevertheless defended themselves 

 bravely. " I assure your Grace," writes the earl of Surrey to 

 Wolsey, in 1523, " I found the Scots at this tyme the boldest 

 men and the hotest that ever I sawe any nation; and all the 

 jorney, upon all parts of the army, kept us with so contynuall 

 skyrmyshe that I never saw the lyke. If they myght assemble 

 40,000 as good men, as I now saw 1500 or 2000, it wolde be 

 an hard encounter to mete them."f But this could not last. 

 Dacre at length reports the desolation to be complete. 

 *• Nothing was left on the frontiers of Scotland without it be 

 part of old houses whereof the thatch and coverings are taken 

 away by reason whereof they cannot be burnt."+ All the 

 inhabitants fled inland, so that the English forays had to be 

 carried 20 miles inland to find booty. The Liddisdale clans 

 appear to have retired to the estates of the laird of Buccleugh, 

 who was- powerful enough to defend his own lands; and hence 

 began that connection which was never afterwards severed, 

 and accounts for the presence of the Liddisdale men in 

 Buccleugh's force, when attempting to deliver the young 

 king from the Douglases two years later. Of Hermitage we 

 hear nothing during this turbulent period. It was probably 

 held by BothwelFs garrison, who was powerless to interfere. 

 On the accession of James V., his first act was to introduce 

 order into the distracted districts. As a preliminary step 

 Patrick 3rd earl of Bothwell and the other chiefs were 

 seized and put in ward, whilst the king with a strong force 

 proceeded to the frontier and made such severe examples of 

 the freebooters as to secure a momentary return of order and 

 security. But it was of short duration.§ The weakness of 

 James' authority did not allow him to confirm or consolidate 



* Tyt. V. 93. 



f Ellis' Orig. Letters, 1st series, I 214, dated 27th Sept. 1523. 



X Dacre to Wolsey, llth June, 1524. Ellis, 1. 248. 



§ Bothwell appears to have given a bond to preserve order at this time. See 

 Pitcairn Crim. Tri. 1. 245. After a detention of six months he was released 

 on a bail of £20,000 to return to prison when required. 



