Notes on Branxholme, By W. Eliott Lockhart. 429 



" Hector of Tharlows" afterwards delivered up Northumberland 

 to the Regent Murray, when he fled to him for protection! 

 Hence his name became so infamous that to take " Hector's 

 Cloak " passed into a proverb for betraying a friend. His 

 treachery was universally detested by the Borderers. 1 Leslie 

 bears the same testimony. 



" Lat this mairover be eiket to thair first vertue that quhomto ance thay 

 gyue thair faith thoch til ane enimie it be, thay keip it maist snrelie, In sa 

 far that quha ance brek his faith nathing is thocht mair vngracious than he. 

 Bot gif ony amang thame be fund giltie of sik a crime he quha suffiris the 

 iniure vses, or sum in his name, in a solemne uonuentioune, quhen present 

 to mend and bind vp al materis on baith the handes ar baiih the wardens 

 of the bordiris, — eftir this maner thay vse, I say, to put a giuue vpon the 

 poynte of ane speir in exprobatione and schame of him quha crakit his 

 creddence, rydeng of sik a maner throuch al the people, schaweng it out, na 

 infamie is compared to this, his companiouns wissis oft that God take him 

 out of this lyfe be ane honest deith.2 



'J he glove upon a lance, as the emblem of faith, is thus illus- 

 trated in the Lay. 



" While yet they gaze, the bridges fall, 

 The wicket opes, and from the wall 

 Rides forth the hoary Seneschal. 



In sign of trace, his better hand 



Display'd a peeled willow wand ; 



His squire, attending in the rear, 



Bore high a gauntlet on a spear. 3 

 Froissart, writing about the middle of the fourteenth century, 

 thus describes the endurance and frugality of the Scottish Bor- 

 derers. 



" The Scots are bold, hardy, and much inured to war. When they make 

 their invasions into England, they march from twenty to four and twenty 

 leagues (miles) without halting as well by night as day; for they are all on 

 horseback, except the camp followers, who are on foot. The knights 

 and esquires are well mounted on large bay horses, the common people 

 on little galloways. They bring no carriages with them, on account of the 

 mountains they have to pass in Northumberland ; neither do they carry 

 with them any provisions of bread or wine ; for their habits of sobriety are 

 such in time of war, that they will live for a long time on flesh half 

 sodden, without bread, and drink the river water without wine. They have 

 therefore no occasion for pots or pans ; for they dress the flesh of their cattle 



1 Sadler's -State Papers, Note, p. 389 ; vide also Border Sketches, by Lady 

 Minto, p. 182; from Fuller's Worthies of Northumberland. 



2 Leslie, Dalrymple's Trans., p. 101. 



3 Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto i\\. xx., xxi. 



