J. F. Campbell Collection > Minstrelsy of the Scottish border > Volume 1

INTRODUCTION. XIX
with England, carried on with mutual incursions.
Two gallant armies, levied by Albany, were dis-
missed without any exploit worthy notice, while Sur-
rey, at the head of ten thousand cavalry, burned
Jedburgh, and laid waste all Tiviotdale. This ge-
neral pays a splendid tribute to the gallantry of the
Border chiefs. He terms them, " the boldest men,
" and the hottest, that ever I saw any nation." *
Disgraced and detested, Albany bade adieu to
Scotland for ever. The queen-mother and the Earl
of Arran for some time swayed the kingdom. But
their power was despised on the Borders, where
Angus, though banished, had many friends. Scot
of Buccleuch even appropriated to himself domains
belonging to the Queen, worth 400 merks yearly ;
being probably the castle of Newark, and her join-
ture lands in Ettrick Forest.-f- — This chief, with
nerous interposition of Gawin Douglas. The skirmish was
long remembered in Edinburgh, by the name of " Cleanse
the Causeway." — Pinkerton's History, vol. II. p. 181. —
PjTScoTTiE, Edit. 1728, p. 120. — Life of Gawain Douglas,
prefixed to his Virgil.
* A curious letter from Surrey to the king is printed in the
Appendix, No. I.
t In a letter to the Duke of Norfolk, October 152i, Queen
Margaret says, " Sen that the Lard of Sessford and the liard