REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1901 77 



For at Throptou he has a goodly herd 



Jast newly come frae the low conntrye, 

 And at Rotbary there are a hunder head 



All fat and fair on Kimside lee. 



The weary wounded Scots went on, 



Still with their drove, full hard bested ; 



For word had gone to Biddleston tower 

 That wakened the captain from his bed. 



He mounted his horse and galloped forth. 

 His troopers gathering at the word ; 



And the first man that he met with 

 Was burly Tam of Mossburnford. 



Turn, Captain of Biddleston, turn and flee ! 



Tby arm was never a match for mine, 

 I'll hold at bay thy men and thee 



Till I'm across the Border line. 



There shalt thoa never be again, 



Thou miscreated burly bear ; 

 Have at thee now, for fight or feign, 



I'll have thy head upon this spear. 



He rode at Tam wi' furious aim. 

 Thinking to run his body through. 



But little dream'd of the left hand skelp 

 That nicJcit the captain clean in two. 



The Selbys were invariably mixed up in all Border troubles, 

 and few of the heads of the house died in their beds. In 

 the great civil war they espoused the cause of Charles I., for 

 which they suffered heavily by fines and sequestrations; 

 while in the Jacobite Rising of 1715 they were found in the 

 thick of it, along with their friends the Collingwoods of 

 Eslington, the Ciaverings of Callaly, the Talbots of Carting- 

 ton, and other Northumbrian families. On the afternoon 

 of Friday, October 6th 1715, Ephram Selby of Biddleston 

 and his steward were amongst the Coquetdale men who met 



