Anniversary Address. 61 



all the lands, rents, possessions, commonties, liberties, and privi- 

 leges formerly enjoyed and possessed by them. 4tli March, 1535. 



2. Charter by King James Y. to the Burgesses and Community 

 of the Burgh of Selkirk, confirming verhatim to them Charter of 

 the said Burgh, 4th March, 1535; Licence to till yearly 1000, 

 acres of their common lands, 20th June, 1536 ; and Grant of an 

 yearly Fair, 2nd September, 1536. 8th April, 1538. 



3. Charter by James Y. to the Bailies and Community of the 

 Burgh of Selkirk, empowering them to elect a Provost yearly, 

 and conferring upon the said Provost and Bailies the oflB.ce of 

 Sheriff within the said Burgh. 2nd October, 1540. 



4. Copy of an Act of Parliament, 28th June, 1633, confirming 

 the above three Charters. 



Mr Eodger also exhibited the Silver Cup of the Burgh of Sel- 

 kirk, used now on the rare occasions when distinguished public 

 men are received as freemen of the Town, and installed in all the 

 privileges of its Burgesses by the quaint ceremony of "licking 

 the birse." The Cup was presented to the town by the fourth 

 Duke of Buccleuch after the famous "Carterhaugh Ba','' played 

 on Monday, 4th Dec, 1815. After describing the "Ba','' which 

 had nearly ended in a serious melee between the contending 

 parties, the towns-folk of Selkirk and the men of Ettrick and 

 Yarrow, Lockhart says in his "Life of Scott,'' — 



" The good Duke of Buccleugh's solitary exemption from these heats of 

 Carterhaugh, might read a significant lesson to minor politicians of all 

 parties on more important scenes. In pursuance of the same peace- 

 making spirit, he appears to have been desirous of doing something grati- 

 fying to the men of the town of Selkirk, who had on this occasion taken 

 the field against his Yarrow tenantry. His Grace consulted Scott about 

 the design of a piece of plate to be presented to their community ; and 

 his letter on this v/eighty subject must not be omitted in the memoirs of 

 a Sheriff of Selkirkshire : — 



" To His Grace the Duke of Buccleugh, &c., Bowhill. 



" Edinburgh, Thursday (Dec. 1815). 



" My dear Lord, 



" I have proceeded in my commission about the cup. 

 It will be a very handsome one ; but I am still puzzled to dispose of the 

 birse in a becoming manner. It is a most vmmanageable decoration. I 

 tried it upright on the top of the cup ; it looked like a shaving-brush, and 

 the goblet might be intended to make the lather. Then I thought I had 

 a brilliant idea. The arms of Selkirk are a female seated on a sarco- 

 phagus, decorated with the arms of Scotland, which will make a beautiful 

 top to the cup. So I thought of putting the birse into the lady's other 

 hand ; but, alas ! it looked so precisely like the rod of chastisement up- 

 lifted over the poor child, that I laughed at the drawing for half-an-hour. 

 Next, I tried to take off the castigatory appearance by inserting the 

 bristles in a kind of handle ; but then it looked as if the poor woman had 

 been engaged in the capacities of housemaid and child-keeper at once, 



