MtINOI? FORfeStS OF THE NORTHERN COUNTIES. ISi 



borderers became a fierce^lawless race. Not ouly bad they 

 feuds with their neighbours over the border, but they had 

 perpetual feuds among themselves, which even to within a 

 recent time they still fought out at the point of the sword. 

 The forests passed away, England and Scotland were united 

 under one crown ; but the wild passions of these lawless 

 men were transmitted from father to son with undimin- 

 ished fury. A few anecdotes we have culled from various 

 sources will illustrate this. 



" In introducing his readers to some passages in the life 

 of Bernard Gilpin, his namesake,William Gilpin, gives some 

 notice of the borderers. 'Our Saxon ancestors,' he says, 

 ' had a great aversion to the tedious forms of law. They 

 chose rather to determine their disputes in a more concise 

 manner, pleading generally with their swords. 'Let 

 every dispute be decided by the sword ' was a Saxoa law. 

 A piece of ground was described and covered with mats ; 

 here the plaintiff and defendant tried their cause. If 

 either of them were driven from this boundary, he was 

 obliged to redeem his life by three marks. He whose blood 

 first stained the ground lost his suit. This custom still 

 prevailed in the time of Queen Elizabeth, where Saxon 

 barbarism held its latest possession. These wild Northum- 

 brians indeed went beyond the ferocity of their ancestors. 

 They were not content with a duel ; each contending party 

 used to muster what adherents he could, and commence a 

 petty war. So that a private grudge would often occasion 

 much bloodshed.' And these statements of the modern 

 biographer are fully borne out by the auther of the Survey 

 of Newcastle, in Harleian Miscellany, vol. iii. : ' The people of 

 this countey have had ane very barbarous custom among 

 them. If any two be displeased, they expect no law, but 

 bang it out bravely one and his kindred against the other 

 and his. They will subject themselves to no justice, but 

 in an inhuman and barbarous manner fight and kill one 

 another. They run together in clans, as they term it, or 

 names. This fighting they call their deadly feides." 



