JANUARY 39 



clamour for the marshalling of Colonial arms with those 

 of the three realms. 



The importance of colours in the arms — ' tinctures ' 

 as they are technically termed — vras enhanced in feudal 

 and semi-feudal times by reason that by them was 

 regulated a knight's liveries — no mean consideration 

 when the royal army was composed of the personal 

 following of nobles and knights. 



Take, as an example, the memorable scene at ' lousie 

 Lauder ' in 1479, when Archibald Douglas, fifth Earl of 

 Angus, earned the sobriquet of Bell-the-Cat, by which 

 he is best remembered. The bale-fires had been flaring 

 from height to height, from tower to tower, along the 

 Border, summoning gentle and simple to the accustomed 

 duty of national defence. Dreamy, intellectual James iii. 

 had ridden from Edinburgh to put himself at the 

 head of his army, but with him he had brought the 

 detested Thomas Cochrane and his crew — ^' fiddlers and 

 bricklayers,' as the haughty Angus called them. James 

 had raised this Cochrane, a builder and architect, to the 

 earldom of Mar, vacated by the suspicious death of the 

 King's own brother in a dungeon of Craigmillar. 



The barons were furious. What though the English 

 held Berwick ! the Scottish lords would not brook 

 to march with the low-born Cochrane. Angus, as 

 Warden of the March, summoned them to meet in 

 Lauder Kirk, where Lord Gray pungently compared 

 them with the assembly of mice which resolved that a 

 bell should be hung round the cat's neck. The 

 difficulty was to find a volunteer for that most desirable, 

 but delicate, operation. 



