History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

52
WAR WITH ENGLAND
The Scots retaliated, and, to show it was not from too great leniency on
his part, Dacre writes on May 17, 1514: "For one cattle taken by the Scots we
have taken 100, and for one sheep certainly 200. I assure your lordships I
have caused to be burnt and destroyed six times more towns and houses within
the West and middle Marches of Scotland, in the same season, than is done to
us, all waste now, no corn sown upon none of the said grounds. . . . Upon
the West Marches I have burnt and destroyed the townships of Annan [with
thirty-three others described], and destroyed 400 ploughs and above ; no man
dwelling in them to this day save only in the towers of Annan, Steppel [Stapleton],
and Wauchope."
The English Warden had deprived the Scots of the means of living, so
they made raids into England to recover their live property and to rob farms. 1
The late King's cousin, the Duke of Albany, was Regent for the infant
James V., and Dacre was not at all pleased with the little trouble he took
after peace was made to restrain his subjects, the Queen, sister to Henry
VIII., during the short time she acted as Regent, " being more diligent in the
matter."
The young Laird of Gretna, assisted by two of the Irvings and Peter
Graham, made a raid, in which an Englishman and three traitor Scots were
killed. Again, on Nov. 12, 1515, Dacre writes that "The Warden of the
Scottish Borders, with Lord Carlile, Sir John Murray of Cockpool, the Laird
of Johnstoun, Symon Carruthers of Mouswald, Sir Alexander Jardine (Comp-
troller of the Duke of Albany's house), Carruthers of Holmains, Charteris of
Amisfield, William Johnstoun of Gretna, Dunwiddie, the Lairds of Knok,
Castlemilk, Kirkconnel, Tynewald, and others, came to Solam Chapel in England,"
where the said Warden " sent forth in a scrymmage the Laird of Johnstoun,
Captain of Lochmaben, and others to the number of 400 horsemen and
more. They came to Arthuret (on the Esk), burnt a grange and a whole
village to the number of 16 houses."
Returning to Scotland, the Warden sent forth " in another scrymmage
Sir John Murray, Jardine, Charteris, Tynewald, the Provost of Dumfries, and
others, in all 700 horsemen," who robbed Bowness and burnt eighteen houses,
with much corn and hay, and, after assaulting the tower for half an hour,
returned.
In the Lord High Treasurer's accounts in 15 16 there is payment to a
1 The reader of the old story, that a Borderer's wife put nothing but spurs under a
dish-cover at breakfast as a hint to her sons that the larder was empty, does not always
realise that wild deer and other game were plentiful among the hills round Annandale, and
that salmon were speared from horseback, a process of catching them described by several
travellers in the eighteenth century. It need not have meant that they were to steal their food
from England yet when the laws of Scotland allowed ;
" spulzie " from a neighbour as justifiable
if the neighbour was in debt to the spoiler, it would have taken many more raids into England
than are recorded to repay the Borderers for the cruel and unprovoked wasting of their lands
by English armies in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and the constant robberies committed
by Armstrongs, Trumbles, and others protected by England. The fasts enforced by
law for economic reasons as late as 1649, during Lent and at other seasons, made a close
time for game. Buchanan's surprise at the fasts not being kept in Spain shows that he was
accustomed to see them observed.