Notes on Branxholmc. By W. Eliott Lockhart. 445 



forbidding either for old or new feud, any followers or others 

 present, to give cause or occasion for quarrel, by word, deed, or 

 countenance, and in no manner to infringe or break the assurance 

 under pain of death. It was also agreed that the assurance, 

 might be kept until the sunrise of the following day. 1 



The trials or other matters of business were then proceeded 

 with ; and on their completion, the wardens, by joint proclama- 

 tion, declared what had been done, and named the next day of 

 truce, charging all subjects to keep good rule, and the truce, 

 until the next day of meeting. 



Unfortunately these assurances were not always kept, and the 

 days of truce sometimes ended in scenes of battle and bloodshed. 



An illustration of this is given in the " Eaid of the Eeids- 

 wire," 2 on the 7th June 1575, in which, although, 

 " Yett was our meeting rneek eneugb, 

 Begun wi' merriment and mowes," 

 it ended in a fierce engagement between the followers of the 

 respective wardens, Sir John Carmichael, and Sir John Foster. 



Football was a very favourite pastime throughout the Borders, 

 as well on days of Truce, as on other days of meeting, and yet 

 the game often ended in serious disturbance. Such a scene, 

 though on this occasion ending peacefully, is vividly portrayed 

 in the "Lay of the last Minstrel," in the description of the 

 assembly at Branxholme, when squire and knight, with courteous 

 message, told every chief and lord as they arrived — 

 . " How a truce was made, 

 And how a day of fight was taen 

 'Twixt Musgrave and stout Deloraine. 



Now noble Dame, perchance you ask 

 How these two hostile armies met ? 

 Deeming it were no easy task 

 To keep the truce which here was set : 

 Where martial spirits, all on fire, 

 Breathed only blood and mortal ire : — 

 By mutual inroads, mutual blows, 

 By habit, and by nation, foes, 

 They met on Teviot's strand : 

 They met and sate them mingled down, 

 Without a threat, without a frown, 

 As brothers meet in foreign land : 



1 Hist, of Ziddisdale, I., pp. 18-19 (from Bowes' MS. f. 82 b.) 



2 Border Minstrelsy — Baiil of Reidswire ; also Bord. Antiq. t Int. cxriii. 



