A collection of ancient and modern Scottish ballads, etc

40
JOHNIE ARMSTRANG.
[The almost continual wars between England and Scotland,
formed a race of warriors on the frontiers of the two
kingdoms, whose marauding incursions and robberies
were not considered by the Courts as connected with
their political quarrels.—Although both the Scottish and
English borderers were equally rapacious, the former
were more enterprising and daring than the latter, which
may be in a great measure accounted for from the
barrenness of the district that they inhabited, which
held out little eneourngement to industry, while the
plains of England, and even those of their own country,
offered a tempting prey to their depradations. Having
little to lose, they were prodigal of life, and with a stu-
pid blindness to future consequences, embarked in enter-
prises the most hazardous ; inured, therefore, to scenes
of rapine and bloodtshed, and accustomed to depend on
their swords for existence, they paid no regard to the
p roperty of individuals ; their ideas ofjustice were suited
to their mode of life, considering every thing which they
could seize fair booty, and defending it as such at the
risk of their lives;— their habitual robberies rendered
them so cautious and circumspect, as well in their at-
tacks as in their retreats, that they seldom happened to
be discovered, or lost their prey ;
and so ready were they
at all times for battle, that, at the blaze of their beacon