4SG Harden and the Harden Relics. By J. G. Winning 



Pennant, the Naturalist and Antiquary, had heard, but not correctly, about 

 the incident of the Spurs. His picture of the unsettled state of the 

 Borders at the period when they were used is worth citing. An allusion 

 to the Kelso Races furnishes occasion for his commentary. 



" What pleasing times to those that may be brought in contrast, when 

 every house was made defensible, and each owner garrisoned against his 

 neighbour; when revenge at one time dictated an inroad, and necessity at 

 another ; when the mistress of a castle has presented her sons with their 

 spurs to remind them that the larder was empty ; and that by a foray 

 they must supply it at the expense of the Borderers ; when every evening 

 the sheep were taken from the hills and the cattle from the pastures, to 

 be secured in the lower floor from robbers prowling like wolves for prey ; 

 and the disappointed thief found all in safety, from the fears of the 

 cautious owners." 



There is an old "Riding" Proverb in Cumberland, "Ride Rowley, the 

 Houghs i' the Pot," on which the late Mr M. A. Denham, (Cumberland 

 Rhymes, p. 8,) notes — " A MS. quoted in the Hist. Cumberland, p. 466, 

 concerning the Graemes of Xetherb}' and others of that clan runs thus: — 

 ' They were all stark moss-troopers and arrant thieves, both to England and 

 Scotland outlawed, yet sometimes connived at, because they gave in- 

 telligence forth of Scotland, and could raise 400 men, upon a raid of the 

 English into Scotland.' This saying which is recorded of a Graeme 

 mother to her son Rowland, is now become proverbial. It inferred that 

 the last piece of beef was in the pot, and, therefore, it was full time to go 

 in quest of more." 



A spur represented in Richardson's " Table Book of Traditions " &c, vol. 

 in., p. 360, " has been from time immemorial in the possession of the family 

 of Charlton of Hesleyside, Northumberland, with the tradition annexed to 

 it, that it was, according to Border usage, the spur served up in a clean 

 and covered dish, to signify that the larder was empty, and fresh contribu- 

 tions on their neighbours' cattle were required to furnish it; — in fact a 

 pi-actical hint that they must ride to replenish the dish." "The spur is 

 about 6 inches in length ; the breadth of. the heel from stud to stud 3 

 inches, and nearer the back of the heel 2{ inches, the length of either 

 stud to the back of the heel 3i inches ; from the shoulder to the knee li 

 inches ; and from the knee to the rivet of the rowel If inches. The rowel 

 is two inches in diameter." 



J. H.] 



