268 REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1898 



The holly floated to the side, 



And the leaf of the rowan paie; 

 Alas ! no spell conld charm the tide 



Nor the lance of Liddesdale. 



Swift was the Cont o' Keeldar's course 



Along the lily lee ; 

 But home eame never hound nor horse, 



And never home came he." 



In default of a local guide, reference was made to the visit 

 paid by the Club in 1869, and the relative pages of the 

 Proceedings, 1869-72, were read aloud under the shadow of 

 the grim old walls. 



It is unnecessary to relate the history at length, but the main 

 facts, as already entered in the Proceedings and as supplemented 

 from other sources,* may here be given. For several centuries 

 Liddesdale was a wild and disordered district, partly through 

 its remoteness from any central authority and partly because 

 it was the route by which forayers passed and re-passed from 

 both sides of the Border. The description given by Sir Richard 

 Maitland of Lethington in his " Complaint against the Thieves 

 of Liddisdail," written in the sixteenth century, was probably 

 true at most periods of those unsettled times. 



" Of Liddisdail the common thiefis, 

 Sa peartlie stellis now and reifis, 

 That nane may keip 

 Horse, nolt, nor scheip, 

 Nor yett dar sleip 

 For their mischiefis." 



To reduce this lawless district to order, and possibly also to 

 guard against English forayers, more than one fortress-castle 

 was built. The green mounds which cover the ruins of the 

 castle of Liddal can still be traced, on a commanding height 

 above the Liddle stream not far from the present Parish 

 Church. 



* See especially Oliver's Upper Teviotdale and the Scotts of 

 Baccleuch. 



