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HISTORY
OF THE
BERWICKSHIRE
NATURALISTS’ CLUB:
INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831.
“MARE ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, CQ@‘LUM.”
VOL. XXIT.—1912, 1913, 1914, 1915.
ALNWICK : PRINTED FOR THE CLUB
BY HENRY HUNTER BLAIR, MARKET STREET. 1916.
HISfORY, OF THE
BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB
CONTENTS OF VOL. XXII.
PART I.—1912.
1. Annual Address by the President, Tuomas Hopextn, EsqQ., D.C.L., Litt. D.; delivered 10th October, 1912
2. Reports of the Meetings for the year 1912. By the Rev. J. J.M. L. Aixen, B.D. :—
(1) EDLINGHAM AND LEMINGTON ; 5th June (Plates Reyeimc ol, )
(2) DOWLAW DEAN AND FAST CASTLE, 27th June (Plates III. and IV.)
(3) BARMOOR AND FORD; 24th July (Plate V.) (4) BLANCHLAND; 22nd August
(5) SMAILHOLM TOWER AND BEMERSYDE; 18th September (Plate VI.)
(6) ANNOD. MEETING at Berwick; 10th October
3. Account of Rainfall in Berwickshire in the Year 1912. By
JAMES ‘wat Craw, West Foulden
4. Account of Temperature at West Foulden in the Year 1912. By the SAME
5. Financial Statement for the Year ending 10th October, 1912
PAGE
17
27
30
41
bd
45
46
CONTENTS
PART II.—1913.
PAGE 1. Annual Address by the President, James Curt, Hsq., W:S., ¥.S.A,; delivered 9th October, 1913 we Ay 2. Reports of the Meetings for the Year 1913. By the Rev. J.J. M. L. AIKEN, B.D. :— (1) EDINBURGH; 4th June ... Poe me iat FOS
(2) SCREMERSTON AND GOSWICK LINKS; 26thJune 75
(3) MAKENDON CAMP; 28rd July... - ee
(4) BOWHILL, NEWARK, AND HANGINGSHAW ; 2lst August (Plates VII. and VIII.) fe es oe ed
(5) HABITANCUM, OTTERBURN, AND BREMENIUM;
17th September (Plate IX.) te ee PAs (6) ANNUAL MEETING at Berwick; 9th October Ab he 3. A Shipwreck in Northumberland in 1565... = ekg rae
4. Barmoor and the Muschamps. By J. C. Hopeson, M.A., F.8.A. 98
5. James Ellis of Otterburn, a poetical Attorney. By RicHaRrp
WELFORD, M.A. ... ae Re 7 icine’:
6. James Storey of Otterburn. By J.C. Hoveson, M.A., F.S.A. 121
7. Extracts (chiefly local) from the Chronicle of Lanercost.
Communicated by WILLIAM MappaNn ae wes, Le22 8. Berwick Bridge in 1646... St ris iS. Lah OL
9. Localities of less common Plants. By Wittiam B. Boyp of
Faldonside Ade a 5 inva wae Lon
10.
or,
12. 13.
14.
15.
16.
ei:
18.
CONTENTS
Obituary Notice of Thomas Hodgkin, Esq., D.C.L., Litt.D. By
CoMMANDER F’. M. Norman, R.N,
Obituary Notice of William Thomas Hindmarsh, Hsq., Fellow of the Linnean Society, and some time President of the
Club. By J. C. Honeson, M.A., F.S.A. Obituary Notice of Mr. Benjamin Morton. By Wintiam Mappan
Unthank, in the parish of Norham
On the Wild Cattle of Chillingham Park. By the late Mr.
Luxe Hinpmarss, of Alnwick
On the Karly Municipal History of Berwick-upon-Tweed. By
WiLLtiaM Mappan
Account of Rainfall in Berwickshire in the Year 1913. By J. H. Craw, West Foulden
Account of Temperature at West Foulden in the Year 1913. By the Same
’
Financial Statement for the Year ending 9th October, 1918 ...
PAGE
134
136
138
138
139
151
156
CONTENTS
PART Iii.—1914.
PAGE
1. Annual Address by the President, Howarp P®rASE, Esq., M.A., F.S.A., delivered 8th October, 1914 ad wy 1159
2. Reports of Meetings for the Year 1914. By the Rev. J. J. M. L. AIKEN, B.D. :—
(1) TWIZEL AND HETON; 4th June (Plate to face ory). U5
(2) PEASE DEAN, COCKBURNSPATH ; 24th June eee Oi
(3) ELSDON; 29th July 5a ie 3 te 182
(4) ANNUAL MERTING at Berwick; 8th October ake LOS 3. Letter from Berwick ; September 18th, 1778 Bi. coe | LBD: 4. Old Epitaphs in Mindrom Graveyard By Rev. M.Cuntny ... 191 5. The Township of Holborn. By 5 C. Hopeson, M.A., F.S.A. ... 197 6. Hlsdon Lairds. By the Samer ae fr ae sone SNS)
7. List of Less Common Plants in the Area of the Club. By Apam
ANDERSON Aaa Sac Fes base wat, pe
8. Ayton: Medizval Church Bell Inscription. By Rey. J. F. Leisu- MAN, M.A. (Plate X.) a a Rie ey 6
9. The House of Barnewall, Trimlestown. By the Same (Plate XI.) '
10. Will of Amor Oxley, Vicar of Kirknewton. Communicated by J. C. Hopeson oe ao Sty REE oe elo
11. Will of Andrew Edmeston of Berwick oh we ee oO
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
M7.
18.
19:
20.
21.
22.
23.
CONTENTS
Selby Monumental Inscription at Cornhill
Account of the Excavation of Two Cairns of the Bronze Age at Foulden Hagg. By J. H. Craw, F.S.A., Scot. (Plate XII.)
Home of Wedderburn. By WitLiam Mappan
Memorial to James Melvill, the Scots Reformer. Communicated
by Rey. J. F. Lessuwan (Plate XIII.)
The Dismemberment of the Tankerville Estates. By J.C.
HopaGson
Will of Samuel Kettilby of Berwick. Communicated by the
SAME The Tower and Township of Coldmartin. By the Same
Enclosure of Common Fields and Division of Commons. By
the SAME
Fowberry and its Ancient Owners. By the Same
Account of Rainfall in Berwickshire in the Year 1914. By J. H. Craw
Temperature at West Foulden in the Year 1914. By the SAME
Financial Statement for the Year ending 8th October, 1914 ...
281
282
295
301
303
313
314
322
329
331
332
333
Ile
2.
10.
1
12.
13.
14.
CONTENTS. PART IV.—1915.
Annual Address by the President, Coronnt ALEXANDEE Brown,
delivered 14th October, 1915
Reports of the Meetings for the Year 1915, by the Rry. J. J. M. L. Arken, B.D. (1) FOWBERRY AND CHATYON ; 2nd June (Plate XIV.) (2) GORDON; 30th June (3) VALLEY OF UPPER WHITADDER;; 21st July (Plate XV.)- (4) MOREBATTLE; 19th August (5) OLD BEWICK AND EGLINGHAM; 22nd September (6) ANNUAL MEETING AT BERWICK; 14th October... Gordon. By the Rev. Joun Ritcuiz, B.D. Rennington
Kelso Typography, 1782-1850. By J. L. Hinson
Great Storm of 1785
Hxcavations in Morebattle Churchyard. By Mrs. J. EH. F. Cowan Rock and Renningtou Chapels
Jedburgh Typography, 1817-1845. By J. L. Hizson
Site of Thomson the Poet’s House at Wideopen. By Mrs. J. H.
F. Cowan
Account of Rainfall in Berwickshire in the Year 1915. By J. H. Craw, F.S.A. (Scot.)
Meteorological Observations in Berwickshire for 1915: By A. E. Swinton, B.A....
Financial Statement for the Year ending 30th September, 1915
List of Members, 1916
335
401
403
403
405
406
ILLUSTRATIONS.
PART IF.—1912:
Prate I. Lemington in 1912. From a photograph by Mr A. T. Robertson, p. 22.
Prate II. Fire-place at Titlington. From a photograph provided by Mr R. L. Allgood, p. 23.
Puate III. Fast Castle. From a photograph by Miss A. N. Cameron, p. 25.
Prats IV. Fast Castle Approach. From a photograph by Miss A. N. Cameron, p. 26.
Prate V. Ford Castle. From a photograph by Miss A. N. Cameron, p. 29.
Puate VI. Bemerside. From a photograph by Miss A. N. Cameron, p. 40.
PART II.—1913.
Puate VII. Newark and Hangingshaw. From photographs by Miss A. Cameron, pp. 87,88.
Prate VIII. Bremenium. From a photograph by Mr T. Graham, p. 94.
Prate IX. Chart of Rainfall at West Foulden. By Mr J. H. Craw.
PART IIT.—1914. Pirate — Heton Castle temp Hlizabeth, p. 177.
Prats X. Ayton Church Bell Inscription. From a photograph provided by Rev. J. F. Leishman, p. 272.
Puate XI. Trimlestown. Presented by Rev. J. F. Leishman, p. 273.
Prats XII. Hdington Mill Cist. From a photograph provided by Mr J. H. Craw, p. 293.
Puate XIII. Memorial Brass of James Melvill. “From a photograph pro- vided by Rev. J. F. Leishman, p. 302.
PART IV.—1915.
Prarm XIV. Lime at Fowberry, p. 348. Pirate XV. Cranshaws Castle, p. 357.
PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB.
Address delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club at Berwick, 10th October 1912. By THomAs HopackIn, Esq., D.C.L., Litt.D., President.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN,
The President of a club of Naturalists should certainly address them on some point of Natural History. As I am unfortunately unable to do this, my education in this department of science having been sadly neglected, 1 must ask you to accept instead an Address on a little portion of Human History in which we are all interested—I mean the history of the good town of Berwick-on-T weed during the Middle Ages. I shall of necessity be very brief and very superficial in my remarks, making no pre- tence to originality of research, but taking my facts unblushingly at second-hand from such compilers as Ridpath and Scott. Let me confess it, | write rather more | with the design of clearing my own mind as to what has always been to me a rather confused portion of history, than with any hope of bringing a single new fact to the knowledge of an audience who are probably much better ened than myself as to the past fortunes of this famous Border town.
You will perhaps think the following remark somewhat fanciful, but I may say that there seems to me to be a certain attribute of doubleness—of duality—about the character of Berwick. She looks back on the smiling and beautiful valley of the Tweed; she looks forth to. the sternly scowling North Sea. She had two sets of walls, the grim stone walls of feudal Edward (unhappily almost extinct), and the green, scientifically constructed, Vauban- like ramps and demi-lunes of Elizabeth. She has two
B.N.C.—VOL, XXII. NO. L A
2 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS
bridges, the picturesque stone bridge of the early 17th century (long may it endure !), and the noble Border bridge with its twenty-eight arches striding across the valley of the Tweed, one of the grandest of all the works of Robert Stephenson. Above all, Berwick was for so many centuries the shuttle-cock of war between England and Scotland, that I think even to this day she hardly knows to which of the two players (the now loving brothers) she shall give her heart. It is to the varying fortunes of this game, to the alternatives of Berwick’s allegiance to the two kingdoms, that I propose to invite your attention.
In the first place, why was Berwick ever Scottish ? We all know that in early Anglo-Saxon days the frontier of the Anglian kingdom of Northumbria reached to the Firth of Forth. Why and when did it recede as far South as the Tweed ?—a difficult question, involving the mysterious transaction called “the Cession of Lothian,” a transaction as to which there has been a certain amount of skirmishing debate between E. A. Freeman on the English, and E. W. Robertson and Andrew Lang on the Scottish side. On the whole, the present disposition of scholars seems to be to accept the contention of the Scottish advocates, that the “cession” was the result of the battle of Carham in 1018, when Eadulf Cutel, Ealdor- man of Northumbria, was utterly defeated by Malcolm IT. Unfortunately, we have scarcely any information as to the battle which wrought such an important change in these Northern lands, and the question cannot yet be pronounced clear of doubt ; but the fact itself is loyally accepted even by the most patriotic Englishman, that the river Tweed, not the Firth of Forth, is the boundary of the two countries, and that it became such a boundary at an early period in the 11th century.
It was probably to this territorial change that Berwick owed its importance, if not its very existence. With the Tweed the frontier between two powerful kingdoms, it was natural that a fortress should be erected to command
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 3
the passage of the stream, and probably to take toll of the commerce which was sure to gather round its mouth. That commerce undoubtedly grew and flourished ; and thus it came to pass that Berwick, which was still only “a noble village” in 1097, when the Scottish King, Edgar, in a transient fit of pious generosity granted it to St. Cuthbert and his successors, the Bishops of Durham, was, two hundred years later (in 1286), paying for customs to the Scottish Exchequer £2190 per annum, a sum which, we are told, was equal to one-fourth of the whole customs revenue of England. I have seen it somewhere stated that Berwick was at this time (towards the end of the 13th century) second or third among the sea-port cities of England, coming behind none other save London, and possibly Bristol. A statement of this kind would probably be difficult to verify, but there can be no doubt that it held a very high place among the cities of Britain, nor that this was chiefly due to the wise and statesmanlike policy of the Scottish kings. Their relations with England were far from being always friendly. There were incidents like Malcolm Canmore’s death on the battle-field of Alnwick 1093 ; like the disastrous Battle of the Standard (1138) ; like the captivity and vassalage of William the Lion (1174) ; but notwithstanding these occasional outbursts of wrath the relations of the two kingdoms were not as permanently embittered as they afterwards became! There were frequent inter-marriages between the two royal families, and men looked forward to a possible future union of the kingdoms by dynastic ties ; and especially under the wise and peaceable rule of the two Alexanders (Second and Third, 1214-1286), the “golden age of Scottish history,”
1 Strictly speaking I ought to mention here that William the Lion in his captivity was forced to surrendor Berwick Castle to the English king in whose keeping it remained for fifteen years (1174-1189) ; also that King John (1216) took both town and castle, and burned, but did not hold, them.
*Hume Brown, p. 110.
+ ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS
Berwick-on-Tweed must have greatly flourished. Perhaps it has never been quite so happy since. The corresponding period of English history is the long reign of Henry III, and the first fourteen years of Edward I.
How was this fair prospect overclouded? Who must stand responsible at the bar of history for the changed relations between the two countries, for all the bloodshed and the ravage of the three centuries which now lie before us? With all our admiration for the many noble qualities of the greatest of the Plantagenets, we cannot honestly deny that on the head of Edward I. rests the sole responsibility for all this wickedness. The Scottish nation approached him in their hour of need, trustfully confiding their destinies to his hands. He insisted on the acknowledgment of his claim to feudal suzerainty. Even that was granted, but it was shamefully abused. The scene opens fairly, and it opens at Berwick. On the 17th of November, 1292, the Parliament of England together with a brilliant assemblage of nobles, knights, and burgesses from both kingdoms, met in the strong castle of the Border town, and there Edward gave his judgment—a righteous judgment as it seems to us— in favour of Balliol, who, three days later at Norham Castle, knelt down before him, put his hands between the hands of Edward, and declared himself “his man.” But that act of submission accomplished, the Lord Paramount proceeded to use the rights which it gave him in the spirit of a grasping usurer or a knavish attorney, and thus drove even his meek vassal Balliol to despair, and made rebellion inevitable. Inevitable also was the appeal from the vassal kingdom to the King of France—Edward’s own overlord and the most powerful of his neighbours—for assistance. Hence sprang the treaty of alliance between Scotland and France, first of a long series of similar compacts, to which the chief Scottish boroughs, Berwick first and foremost, affixed their corporate seal. On the 30th of March, 1296—not
Or
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS
four years after the pageant in the castle in which he had borne so distinguished a part—KHdward appeared once more before the Border town, full of fury because of the alliance with France, a fury which was not lessened when he heard of the insulting songs where- with the citizens defied “the Kyng Edward” with “his langge shankes,” and taunted him with his inability “for to wynne Berewyke.” They laughed too soon. The long-legged king with an army of °34,000 men was outside their gates, and though his ships did not succeed in entering the harbour, his land forces, apparently, had no great difficulty in surmounting the defences, which consisted chiefly of a broad and deep dyke. Over this, King Hdward leapt his horse, Bayard; and soon his whole army was in the town ravaging, plundering, slaying; for the King’s orders were at first to kill with- out mercy. An English chronicler (Lanercost) says “ for a day and a half those of both sexes perished, some by slaughter, some by fire, not less than 15,000: the re- mainder, even to the little children, being sent into perpetual exile.” As the slaughter of 2,500 soldiers at Drogheda stains the memory of Cromwell, as the recent massacre of uncounted thousands of Chinese at Blagovest- chenk stains the already forgotten name of the Russian general who ordered it, so must this cruel massacre at Berwick stain the memory of. Edward Plantagenet.*
THE FIRST ENGLISH OCCUPATION.
With this bloody scene of slaughter begins the first English occupation, which, interrupted only by a short occupation (of the town, not of the castle) by William Wallace in 1296, lasted for twenty-two years (1296- 1318), that is, for the rest of the reign of Edward 1., and for eleven years of the reign of his son. It was,
>What is the authority for the “sudden and characteristic burst of tears’? with which, according to J. R. Green, followed by Seott, Hdward ordered the massacre to cease ?
6 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS
however, we must fear, a half-ruined and desolate town over which the English banner waved. Of the effect on the foreign trade of the town we may form some conjecture from the story of the thirty Flemish merchants who held their place of exchange, the “ Red Hall,” through the whole day of the siege against the full force of the English army. When night came the hall was set on fire by the besiegers, and the brave Flemings perished in the ruins. But the trade in the wool’ of the sheep on Cheviot and by the Tweed, which these enterprising foreigners had carried on probably for a century or more to the profit of both countries, might not be restored for generations.
I must return for a moment to the English king, who dwelt for about three weeks in the desolate, captured city. It was perhaps in memory of the taunts of the citizens—
‘“Go pyke it him,
And when he have it won,
Go dike it him,” that he did at once set about digging a great foss 80 feet broad and 40 feet deep all round the city. To stimulate the workers for their task he is said to have himself wheeled the first barrow of excavated earth. Then leaving Berwick, he set forth on his expedition into Scotland to chastise the insolence of the poor vassal who had at length ventured to turn against his oppressor, and send him the renunciation of his allegiance. For this expedition he increased the ranks of his army by issuing a general pardon to male- factors of various kinds, murderers, robbers, poachers, who should come in and serve under his banner. It brings before me in vivid fashion the continuity of our English life, to find that one such pardoned felon-soldier was “ John Swyn of Lowyke” who had killed his neighbour “ Roger Baret of Bayremoor.”*
This campaign of Edward I. seemed to have completed the subjugation of Scotland, though the long list of nobles
+Scott’s Berwick, p. 27. But what is his authority for this interesting little piece of local history ?
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 7
and knights taken prisoners at Dunbar, and the arrange- ments which had to be made for their safe keeping, suggest the small progress which Edward had yet made towards winning the hearts of the men, whom he claimed as his absolute subjects after the deposition of Balliol.
“Wallace Wight” now appears on the scene, and for nine years with varying success upholds the banner of Scotland’s freedom. For a brief space even Berwick, the town but not the castle, changes hands. Soon after Wallace’s great victory of Stirling Bridge (September, 1297) one of Wallace’s men named Haliburton, notwith- standing Edward’s big dyke, obtained possession of the town; but the town without the strong Norman castle did not count for much from a military point of view, and in the spring of 1298 it was once again in the hands of the English.
In 1305 the brave Wallace suffered death as a traitor at Smithfield; but in the following year Robert Bruce, who had so long wavered between his feudal duty to Edward and his higher duty to Scotland, was crowned at Scone, (March 27, 1306,) King of Scotland, by the fair hands of Clara Macduff, Countess of Buchan. True that for many months, which threatened to grow into years, Bruce and his brave wife led the life of hunted fugitives— “but king and queen of the May, such as boys crown with flowers,” as his brave wife sadly exclaimed ; true that even the liberty of a rough forest life was denied her, that she was taken prisoner and brought as a captive to Berwick, where she remained for eleven years till she was liberated by her husband’s victory at Ban- nockburn. She was courteously treated, “had sufficient attendance, leave to hunt, and the best house in the manor of Brustwick for her abode.”® Much harsher was the treatment of the unfortunate Countess of Buchan, who also was taken prisoner by the English, and was
>Lang I., 208.
8 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS
imprisoned in an iron cage, though it seems to be gener- ally agreed that the hanging of that cage outside a turret of Berwick Castle, and so exposing the hapless Clara to the gaze of the soldiers and the full fury of the gales from the German Ocean, is mythical. The cage was not a comfortable place of abode, but it was “strictly private,” and under cover.
But in May 1307, by Bruce’s victory of Loudon Hill, the tide of fortune turned, and flowed henceforward almost uninterruptedly in Bruce's favour. Two months after, Edward Longshanks died at Burgh-on-the-Sands, looking across the Solway at still un-conquered Scotland. From that time forward history has nothing to record but the gradual shpping away of Edward’s conquests from the nerveless hands of his successor, Edward of Caernarvon. It is true that not even Bannockburn (June 24, 1314), though it gave Bruce the power of redeeming his wife from the hands of the enemy, restored the Border fortress to the Scots, but four years after (early in 1318) partly by treachery on the part of a burgess, Simeon of Spalding, who was indignant at the English governors haughty behaviour to the citizens, Berwick fell into the hands of the “heroes twain,” Randolph and Douglas, and the first English occupation of Berwick was ended.
THE SECOND SCOTTISH OCCUPATION.
The second Scottish occupation, which thus began, lasted but sixteen years till the battle of Halidon Hill (1333). It was chiefly memorable for two events, a siege and a wedding.
Even the inefficient Edward of Caernarvon could not sit down in patience under such a disaster as the loss of Berwick. In 1318 a levee en masse was made of all Yorkshire-men between the ages of sixteen and sixty. In June, 1319 the Sheriff of London was- ordered to raise forty carpenters and eight workers in iron, and send them to Neweastle by July 25th. Twelve men strong
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 9
and skilful in felling timber were ordered from Essex, twenty miners from the Forest of Dene, six rope-makers from Bridport, two hundred ditchers from Holderness and Lincoln, fifty masons and twelve smiths from York, besides other hand-workers from other parts of the kingdom, By the end of August this variously equipped host was assembled before the town which was held for Bruce by his son-in-law, Walter the Steward, progenitor of a race of kings, and founder of the Stuart dynasty.
The story of the memorable siege which followed is told in vivid lowland Scottish verse by Bruce’s biographer, Archdeacon Barbour. The small height of the walls of Berwick, which had doubtless made easier Spalding’s betrayal, now made the work of defence more difficult. As Barbour says :—
“The wallis of the town then were So low that a man with a spear Might strike another up in the face.” Yet the English attempt to carry the place by escalade was a failure. “But they so great defence then made That were above upon the wall That often ladders and men withal They made fall flatly to the ground.” The next device was to steer a ship right up to the wall by the bridge-house, and to let fall a drawbridge from the top of one of the masts; but the attack was so briskly repulsed that the Englishmen could not succeed in lowering their bridge. At the ebb of the tide the ship was left high and dry on the sand. The besieged sallied forth from the town, burned the ship, and carried captive an engineer whom they found in her and whom they compelled, on pain of death, to devote his talents to their services. There was a short truce, during which the English prepared a great engine called “the Sow.” It was somewhat like a Roman vinea, It ran on wheels, had a strong and ponderous roof, was to be wheeled up to the walls, and under its cover some of B
10 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS
Edward’s motley host of mechanics were to work the destruction of the wall. But meanwhile also a certain Flemish engineer, Jhone Crab, “That was of so great subtilty To ordain and make apparaill For to defend and to assail
Castle of war or their city That none slier might founden be,”
had prepared great “ fagaldes” of pitch and tar and lint and “herdis” (flax-refuse) and brimstone, and a crane running on wheels to hurl them at the foe. When the Sow was pushed near to the walls the captive engineer was tuld— “ Break down yonder engine, or thou shalt surely die.” He adjusted the aim of the catapult that was over against the Sow, drew the bolt
‘“And smartly swappyt out a stone.”
But his aim was wrong; the stone fell beyond the Sow, and the Englishmen that were in her raised an exultant
shout— “Forth to the wall For dredles, it is ouris all.”
But the engineer again took aim and bent the bow and drew the bolt. The stone fell this time short of the Sow, whose inmates thrust her close under the wall. It was this, apparently, for which the engineer was waiting. Once more he bent the bow “and swappyt out the stone ”— a very heavy stone—which, falling almost perpendicularly, did the business. The massive roof was crushed in, many of the men within were killed, and the survivors rushed out in terror. “Hey,” cried the exultant Scots, “the English sow has farrowed!” Then John Crab’s faggots came into play, and being hurled down on the luckless machine they “burned her to the bones.” So that attack failed, and another one like it, again made from the sea-ward side. Meanwhile Douglas and Randolf, those “duo fulmina belli,” were winning battles in England and ravaging Yorkshire,
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 11
while Edward’s ambitious cousin, the Earl of Lancaster, ostentatiously withdrew his vassals from the host. Berwick was saved, and for fourteen years longer remained a Scottish fortress.
They were miserable years these for the North of England ; incessant Scottish raids into all the six Northern counties, half-heartedly repelled by the servants of Edward of Caernarvon; appeals, almost piteous appeals for peace from the Southern kingdom, sternly repulsed by Bruce, so long as Edward II., with all the obstinacy of a weak nature, persistently refused him the title of King. At last domestic treason brought about the desired consum- ation. Edward was dethroned by his adulterous wife, and cruelly murdered at Berkeley Castle. Isabella and Mortimer, who ruled England in the name of the young Edward III., concluded a truce which grew into a treaty, the Treaty of Northampton (17th March 1328), one article of which was that Robert Bruce’s son, David, should marry Edward of Caernarvon’s daughter, the young English prin- cess, Joanna. Accordingly, in the following July, the little Joanna, a child six years of age, surnamed “ of the Tower,” (having been born in the Tower of London, to which her mother had repaired for safety during a time of disturbance) was brought by the English Chancellor to Berwick, and was there married to David Bruce who had already attained the age of four. . The ceremony seems to have been performed with great magnificence; there was an immense expenditure on liveries and uniforms, on provisions of all kinds (including 2,200 eels), on spices with forgotten names, besides nutmegs, cinnamon and ginger; but the old hero-king, whose health was now fast failing (he died in the following year) seems not to have been present, and the marriage, though not conspicuously unhappy, did not prove altogether a happy one, nor did it bring the hoped for heir of English descent to the Scottish throne.
Four years after this joyous festival, the young bride’s brother, having thrown off the yoke of Isabella and
12 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS
Mortimer, practically disavowed their Treaty of Northamp- ton, which in one important stipulation, that concerning the restoration of their estates to nobles of the English party, had not been very scrupulously observed by little David’s counsellors. He summoned his armed vassals to meet him at Newcastle on the 21st March 1333, and in May began the siege of Berwick. He failed to take the town by assault, had to turn the siege into a blockade, and perhaps might have failed as his father had failed before him. But the Scots who had collected a large army determined (contrary to Bruce’s usual policy) to risk a pitched battle, fought at Halidon Hill, a few miles out of Berwick, fought and were utterly defeated, the first of Edward III.’s great victories. After this battle, the town was of course surrendered, and thus began
THE SECOND ENGLISH OCCUPATION.
The second. English occupation lasting for one hundred and twenty eight years (1333-1461), was interrupted by three temporary lapses into possession by the Scots, but these were so soon ended that they cannot be considered to have broken the long tenure of the place by the English.
1.—In 1355, “ Patrik of Dunbar, counte of Marche, and Thomas le Seneschal, that caullid hymself counte of Angus, sale ba prepared them self apon a nighte with scaling laders cumming to Berwik and withyn vi. dayes after tok by assaulte one of the strongest toures of Berwik and enterid the town. This tydinges was brought to King Edwarde (III) at his very landing at (? from) Calays ynto England. Wherefore he tarried at his parlament apointed at London but 3 dayes, and with al spede cam to Berwike and enterid the castel [which had not been taken by the Scots] and then the burgeses tretised with hym, and the toune of Berwik was redelyverid ful sore agayn the Scottes wylle to King Edwarde.” (Such is the account of this episode in the English occupation given in the Scalacronica of Sir
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 13
Thomas Gray, who had himself been captured a few days before at Norham by the same party of Scottish raiders. The result of this capture was his imprisonment at Edin- burgh, to solaee which captivity he began his invaluable Ladder-Chronicle of the History of Britain).
2.—In the autumn of 1378 a band of Scottish robbers, said to have numbered only forty, surprised the ill-guarded castle and slew the govenor, Robert de Boyton, and many of the garrison. This act was one of no political importance, and was promptly disavowed by the Scottish Warden of the Marches, who declared that he would if necessary him- self help to recover it to the King of England’s use. His intervention, however, was not needed. Hotspur Percy, who was just rising into fame, carried the castle by assault. Hoge and his comrades were put to death as common felons for having, in breach of the truce and without their king’s authority, committed murder, arson and robbery, and their heads were displayed on the castle walls.°
3.—In December 1384, the castle was again taken, the Scottish historian says, by scaling ladders and a valorous assault ; but the English historian declares by treachery and gold. It was soon recovered by the Earl of Northum- berland, and save for the fact that about this time the unfortunate town was twice burned by the Scots, there is nothing in these “snap” takings and retakings which need detain us.
The long period of the second English occupation is somewhat uninteresting. It was on the whole a dreary period of Scottish history, comprising the reign of the futile David Bruce, and of the first five Stuart kings (the two Roberts and the three first Jameses), a time of long minorities, of disastrous regencies, of the endless feuds of selfish and turbulent nobles, In English history our attention is chiefly claimed for “ the Hundred Years War” with France (Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt), and for the
S Annals of the House of Percy, Vol. 1., p. 181.
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beginning of the Wars of the Roses, so that we feel that we have no mind to spare for petty and resultless Border skirmishes. Yet it was no doubt a fine time for ballad- makers and romance writers, and probably a sufficiently miserable time for the people who had to endure it.
One point we ought to notice, which is well brought out by a Scottish historian, that the town and castle were to an English king a memory of the sovereignty over Scotland, and a symbol of his hopes of one day recovering it. For this reason “the place was long burdened with an official staff which in its nomenclature at least was as pompous as that of a sovereign state. The English Government, after Scotland was lost, retained the official staff which Edward I. had designed for the administration of the country. It was ready to spread over the whole country when the proper time came, and soon after the re-capture of Berwick there was a prospect of such expan- sion. The active field for its operations, however, was contracted by degrees, and was at last confined to the town and liberties of Berwick, which were then honoured by the possession of a Chancellor, a Chamberlain, and other high officers; while the district had its own Domesday Book, and other records adapted to a sovereignity on the model of the kingdom of England.” The situation of Berwick was therefore in many respects analogous to that of Calais—a pied @ terre in a foreign land, a memory of past conquest, a hope of far wider conquests to come. I presume that it was this peculiar character of the Border town which caused it so long to retain its proud position of isolation in the preambles of Acts of Parlia- ment—“ England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the town of Berwick-upon-T weed.”
It would be interesting to know when, if ever, the citizens of Berwick ceased to regard themselves as Scots,
‘J. H. Burton, History of Scotland, Vol. u., 318 (quoted by Scott, p. 56).
ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 15
and accepted the nationality of Englishmen. I conjecture that the century of the second English occupation may have brought about this change; but for want of a collec- tion of private correspondence like the Paston letters, I fear it will be impossible ever to speak certainly on this subject.
These same Paston letters do, however, make one interesting reference to Berwick. In May 1461, soon after the battle of Towton, Thomas Playters writes to John Paston :—
“ Berwyk is full of Scottys, and we loke be lyklyhod after anoyther
batayll now be twyx Skotts and us.”
The first part of this statement was true, but not the conclusion drawn from it. After the battle of Towton (one of the most terrible of Lancastrian defeats in the Wars of the Roses) Henry VI. and his Queen fled from York towards Scotland. They “lingered just inside the Border hoping for aid from the Scots,” which they purchased “ by handing over Berwick to the Regents Kennedy and Boyd, and offering to cede Carlisle also.”®
The “Skottis” however did not at this time fight, but adopted the old defensive policy of Bruce. Yet the poor hunted King had still regality enough to cause his commands to be obeyed by a Warden of the Marches and thus began, on 25th April 1461,°
THE THIRD SCOTTISH OCCUPATION.
The third Scottish occupation lasted only twenty-one years, and was ended (1461) by a campaign conducted by Richard Crookback, Duke of Gloucester, acting in concert with the Scottish rebel Duke of Albany. There is nothing either in the history of this brief occupation or in its close which need detain us. Both are inglorious, and both uninteresting. Only some of us, who from our
8 Political History of England (Oman), Vol. tv., 409. ®Lang, History of Scotland, Vol, 1., p. 335,
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childhood have thought of Richard III, only as a mur- derer of captive princes and innocent children, may well be reminded that he was also a statesman and a warrior, and that to him England owes the final recovery of the good town of Berwick-upon-T weed.
It is customary and fitting that a record of the losses sustained during the year should be entered at the annual meeting of the Club. We have to lament the death of Dr. James McDougall, Coldingham; Mr W. Strang Steel, Philiphaugh ; Sir Gainsford Bruce, Gainslaw House; Mr Robert Middlemas, Alnwick, for many years our valued Treasurer ; Mr Walter Arras, Melrose; and Dr. Pringle Hughes, Firwood, Wooler. We note with regret the resignation of Mr Arthur E. Davies, Edinburgh; Rev. Canon Wilsden, late of Wooler; Rev. Edmund Williams, Bamburgh ; Mr Humphrey J. Willyams, Plymouth; Mr Robert Redpath, Neweastle-on-Tyne ; Dr. T. W. McDowall, Morpeth; Rev. George V. Dunnett, Cockburnspath ; Mr Philip Sulley, late of Galashiels; and Rev. Norman R. Mitchell, late of Whitsome.
I have pleasure in nominating as my successor, Mr James, Curle, W.S., Priorwood, Melrose, whose gifts of historical research, as displayed in the recent work of excavation at Newstead [Roman] fort, fully warrant his appointment as President for next year.
REPORTS OF MEETINGS FOR 1912 17
Reports of the Meetings of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club for 1912.
EDLINGHAM AND LEMINGTON.*
Tue first meeting of the year was held at Edlingham on Wednesday, 5th June, when, in spite of prevailing rain which succeeded a long continuance of dry and brilliant weather, a fair number of members and guests assembled at the Railway Station about noon. These included the following :—Mr. J. C. Hodgson, F.S.A., ex-President ; Rev. J. J. M. L. Aiken, B.D., Secretary ; Mr. R. Lancelot Allgood and Mrs. Allgood, Titlington ; Mr. John Cairns, Alnwick ; Rev. Matthew Culley, Coupland Castle ; Mrs. Erskine, Melrose ; Rev. James Fair- brother, Warkworth ; Mr. William Grey, Berwick; Mr. F. McAninly, Coupland Castle ; Mr. T. B. Short, Berwick ; and Mr. Jas. A. Somervail, Hoselaw. Dr.- Thomas Hodgkin, Barmoor Castle, President, being prevented by the inclemency of the weather from being present, Mr. J. C. Hodgson was appointed to fill his place for the day.
In consequence of the miserable atmospheric conditions, it was determined to forego the walk by the Edlingham burn, which flows northward to join the Aln water in the vicinity of Bolton, and upon whose bank is the station for Carex Benninghausiana, lately reported by the Club. For a similar reason no attempt was made to reach the Black Lough, situated in a mossland hollow about a mile above the Railway Station, on whose western shore the Black-headed Gull (Larus ridibundus) has a breeding-station. Proceeding to the Parish Church, the members were received by the vicar, Rev. J. M. Russell, who courteously conducted them over the building, and with marked appreciation of its historic
* Hdlingham and Lemington were visited by the Club, 30th of May, 1888. Of. Vol. xu. of this series pp. 170-174. Cf. New History of Northumberland, Vol. vit, p. 14. C
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