236 Whalton and its Vicinity, by the Rev. J. E. Elliot. 



seen, but do not know what has become of it. Another of 

 the same description — but whether it was one of the "serpen- 

 tines, half-hawks, harquebuses, currys, colyvers, or hand- 

 gunnes/' forbidden by the statute to be sold to the Scotch, I 

 am not able to say — was kept also at another of the old houses, 

 and was eventually by its last proprietor made into a kitchen 

 poker, and so helped to cook his beef as it had formerly pro- 

 tected that of his predecessors* It might perhaps have been 

 thought that the incursions of the moss-troopers would scar- 

 cely have been extended so far inland, and so near to the 

 strong towns of Newcastle and Morpeth, as to render such 

 precautions necessary. There is, however, abundant evidence 

 that this was the case, and that cattle lifting and other out- 

 rages were perpetrated in the vicinity not only by the Reed- 

 water clans, the Halls and Reeds, but also by their Scottish 

 associates, the Rutherfords and Armstrongs of Roxburghshire. 

 In a Complaint of Injuries done on the Middle Marches 

 to Her Majesty's Commissioners, which is contained in 

 Richardson's " Reprints of Rare Tracts," vol. i., occurs the 

 following : — " Marke Ogle of Kirklye upon John Rotherforte 

 of Egerto.n for receptinge of one Thomas Reade, outlawe, 

 which Reade stole from me about Michelmas 1579, four oxen, 

 done against the virtue of trewse," &c. ; and again, " Com- 

 playnes Lawnell Ogle of Edington (%\ miles from Whalton) 

 upon Francis Armstrong sonne of the Laird of Whythaugh 

 (in Liddesdale) that he and his accomplices about Michelmas 

 1585, had stolen and received from him out of Edington 18 

 oxen, against," &c; and others of a similar kind. Nor will 

 this appear strange if we consider that at that time the country 

 intervening between the village and the Scottish border con- 

 sisted of little else but wild moors covered with natural woods 

 and morasses, which separated and isolated it from the more 

 populous districts. Indeed, within the memory of persons 

 now living, there was no regular road to Morpeth. It only 

 extended to about three miles from the village, after which 

 it entered on the common, across which each passenger 

 chose nis own track. A little earlier, the communication with 

 Newcastle was so difficult that farmers usually carried their 



* A gun of the same description is still preserved at Belsay Castle, and is 

 said to have been used hy Sir William Middleton for shooting wild geese. 

 The last mentioned one was also so used by the old sportsman ycleped Laird 

 Davidson, to whom it belonged, but he found it too cumbrous for the purpose. 



