BATTLE OlF FLODDEN 29^ 



success. Meantime the Rear Guard, under command of Surrey 

 himself, marched straight for a ford on the Crook of the 

 Till, called Sandy ford (four miles above Twizell by a bee- 

 line, but much farther if the windings of the river were 

 followed), which is close to the ancient village of the Crook, 

 or Crookham. Sandyford is the name of the adjoining land, 

 the ford itself, which preserves its identity to this day, being 

 known as The Cradles. By that ford, swollen by rain as the 

 river then was, the Rear Guard crossed unmolested by the 

 enemy who were in camp only a mile-and-a-half distant. 

 Its march would then have been along the North side of 

 Pallinsburn and the marsh for a mile or more, and so, turning 

 to the left, across the marsh by a bridge or causeway known 

 as Branx Brig.^ Even up to the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century some relics of that bridge were visible, and there still 

 lingers among the villagers of Branxton a tradition that by it 

 the English army crossed. Having arrived on the South side of 



'' There is a difference of opinion among students of the battle as 

 to the course of the Rear Guard between Sandyford and Branxton. 

 Some believe it to have been, as described here, along the North side 

 of the marsh until the crossing by the bridge. Otliers maintain that 

 the route was on the South side of the marsh throughout (thus avoiding 

 the necessity of crossing), under cover of and concealment by, latterly, 

 a low ridge which runs for some distance East and West along the 

 South side. Again, some have urged that James never saw the Bear 

 Guard at all until it had reached Branxton; but this idea will not 

 bear analysis. Even supposing that local obstacles precluded the 

 employment of foot soldiers, the famous " Seven Sisters " and their 

 companion guns must have been available ; and, unless we ignore plainly 

 recorded facts of history, we know that they were, but that James 

 resolutely declined to allow them to be used against what must have 

 been the Rear Guard; for to suppose, with Scott, that the crossing 

 of the Van Guard could be seen by the Scottish, or, with Pitscottie, 

 even if it was seen, that James's artillery could possibly have reached a 

 point so many miles out of range as " the Bridge of Tills," is absurd. 

 The river Till, however, is so inseparably connected with the history of 

 Flodden, that the following beautiful and stately lines by W. H. Ogilvie 

 in the Scotaman cannot be out of place here : 



" Sorrow is mine. My tawny waves are muffled drums 

 That beat beside the warrior in his grave ; 

 My step is slow and measured as becomes 

 A mourner of the Brave." 



