8 Report of Meetings for 1879, by James Hardy. 



' ' James he is called, and he shall be 

 King- James the Conqueror ! 

 Now shall the Orescent wane 

 The Cross be set on high — 

 Valencia shall be subdued ; 

 Majorca shall be won ; 

 The Moors be routed everywhere ; 

 Joy, joy to Aragon." 



SOUTHEY. 



Equally applicable is another triple combination, decreed by 

 Jay me II., who reigned from 1271 to 1308, in a general assem- 

 bly of estates, viz., that Aragon, Valencia, and Catalonia should 

 never afterwards be separated.^-' This hieroglyph then is appro- 

 priate to either. The coin may have reached Berwick through 

 the medium of Gascon troops in the service of the first three 

 Edwards, in their attempts to subdue Scotland. Gascony in 

 those ages was conterminous with Aragon, except for the inter- 

 vention of the Pyrenees. In June, 1298, Edward I. made a 

 great efi'ort to crush the Scots, and was successful in winning the 

 battle of Falkirk, July 22. There arrived to his support, a 

 strong body of Gascons, about five hundred of whom were men- 

 at-arms, mounted on excellent horses, and clad in brilliant 

 armour; of these a detachment garrisoned Berwick, and re- 

 mained there until after the king's victory.f While at Berwick 

 some of these foreign troops may have aided in the repairs of 

 the fortifications of Berwick in 1297-8. J Again, about 1316, we 

 have Gascons in Berwick, with a brave knight at their head, in 

 command of the town, whom Sir James Douglas encountered 

 and slew at Skaithmuir, near Coldstream, after he and his garri- 

 son had made a successful raid into Teviotdale. 

 " That tym in Berwik wes duelland 



Edmound de Cailow, a Gascoune, 



That wes a kycht of gret renoune ; 



And in till Gascoune, his contre, 



Lord off gret senyowry wes he. 



He had Berwik in keping."§ 

 In this skirmish " many Gascons were slain. "|| 



The first meeting for 1879 was held at Reston, on Wednesday, 



* Moreri Diet. Hist., Tome iii. 



f Chronicon Walteri de Hemingburgh, ii., p. 174. 



+ Documents Illustrative of the Hist, of Scotland, ii., p. 160. 



6 Barbour's Bruce, Book x. 1. 878, etc, || Scala Chronica. 



