REPORTS OF MEETINGS FOR 1910 139 



Mr Tate followed Ridpatli, but misplaced the scene of the battle 

 "on the Breamish among the Cheviot Hills."* Recently the 

 question was pub to me by Mr W. W. Tomlinson, author of a 

 Compr'ehensive Guide to Northumberland, where was Piperdean, 

 Northumberland 1 and I made some researches, the result of which 

 has been embodied in his work. For the present I merely give 

 an abstract. A mile and a half North-West of Mindrum mill, 

 approached by a lane of the same name, is Piperdean. The 

 Presson burn flows through it, and near it is Presson farm house. 

 The accounts of the battle vary in their details. According 

 to Boetius, Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland 

 (it is uncertain by what authority, whether his own, or the 

 King's), made an incursion into Scotland in 1435 with a force 

 of 4,000 men. He was met at Piperdean by an equal number 

 of Scots, under the leadership of William Douglas, Earl of 

 Angus, Warden of the Middle Marches, Adam Hepburn of 

 Hailes, Alexander Ramsay of Dalhousie, and Alexander Elphin- 

 stone, and after a short and sharp conflict was defeated. The 

 English lost Henry Cliddesdail (Henry Clennell of Clennell), 

 John Ogle, Richard Percy, and about 400 men. Three hundred 

 were made prisoners and conducted into Scotland. On the 

 Scottish side there fell Alexander Elphinstone, and with him 

 two Knights and 200 soldiers. Bower, who gives the date 

 of the battle as 10th September 1436, states that the number 

 of the English captured was 1,500, among whom was Sir Robert 

 Ogle, junior, and that "out of either kingdom there fell not 

 over 40 men of little note." Pinkerton, who fixes the date 

 as 30th September 1435, says nothing about the Earl of 

 Northumberland as being concerned. " An irifraction of the 

 truce happened on the part of England. Sir Robert Ogle, 

 the younger, in support of one of the rebels against James 

 (King of Scotland), entered Scotland with a considerable force, 

 and ravaged the country about Halton (Hutton) and Paxton. 

 After a conflict in which about 40 men were slain, Ogle was 

 defeated and made prisoner with most of his followers by 

 William, Earl of Angus, Hepburn of Hailes, and Ramsay of 



History of Alnwick, Vol. i., p. 179. 



