100 On Chirnside Parish: the Estate of Edington. 



that are, at least, 150 feet high, and have little more declivity 

 than an upright wall. Much broken land, intersected with 

 rivulets, secures it on the north side ; and it is only open on the 

 east, where there is, first, a sloping descent, and then a steep 

 pathway down to Idington mill upon the water. The castle, or 

 strong house, of that village and barony was a close guard to it."* 

 It was overthrown in July, 1497, by the English army under the 

 Earl of Surrey, who "made sharpe warre upon the Scottes,"t 

 in retaliation for James IV. countenancing and furnishing assist- 

 ance to Perkin Warbeck. Surrey, with his army of not less than 

 20,000 men, effected little. " He overthrew and defaced the 

 castle at Caudstream (for thus Baker construes l Cawdrestenes ' 

 or ' Cundrestine '), the tower of Hetenhall, the tower of Had- 

 dington, the tower of Fulden, and at last by composition took the 

 strong castle of Hay ton and rased it to the ground. "| Negotia- 

 tion induced James to abandon the 



" Cause of that mock Prince, 



Warbeck, that Flemish counterfeit, 



Who on the gibbet paid the cheat.'' 



It is marvellous how Chirnside and its vicinity, so readily 

 accessible to the Berwick garrison, which consisted of some of 

 the best trained troops in England, escaped being pounced upon 

 in those hot times, in revenge for the many inroads made by the 

 Scots across the English Border^ In 1565, when Mary Queen of 

 Scots was in exasperation with Elizabeth and eagerly wished for 

 war, while Elizabeth, contrary to the advice of her counsellors, 

 sought to temporize, Bothwell, Mary's best general, to provoke 

 the hostilities, made a raid across the Borders and carried off five 

 or six prisoners. The Earl of Bedford, the large-headed sagacious 

 English warden, made reprisals, " in the faint hope that it might 

 force Elizabeth into a more courageous attitude. She first 

 blamed Bedford ; then, stung by an insolent letter from the Queen 

 of Scots, she flashed up with momentary pride," § The original 

 narrative can be gleaned from the correspondence of the two 

 indignant sovereigns. Mary complains to Elizabeth, December 

 31, 1565 : " Quhairas laitlie, as we ar suirlie informit, certane 

 zour subjectis, to the nowmer of aucht hundrith personis, enterit 

 within our Realme of Scotland, at the townis of Edingtoun and 

 Chirnsyde, four mylis from Berwik or thairabout, and thair 

 nocht onlie maid slauchter, tuke presonaris, spulzeit and reft a 

 greit quantitie of gudis, but alswa usit thame in sic sort as it had 

 bene oppin weir and hostilitie betwix the twa Eealmis, and zit 

 detenis and keipis sum of the presonaris at Berwik, as if it wer 



* Sir. J. Sinclair's " Stat. Account of Scotland,'' xiv., p. 36. 



f Stowe's " Annales,'' by Howes, p. 479. 



% Baker's " Chronicle," p. 243. 



§ Froude's " History of England," viii , p. 232. 



