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

XXIV INTllODFCTIOX.
late lieutenant, and the whole race of Douglas. This
command was not enforced without difficulty ; for
the power of Angus was strongly rooted in the East
Border, where he possessed the castle of Tantallon,
and the hearts of the Homes and Kerrs. The for-
mer, whose strength was proverbial,* defied a royal
army ; and the latter, at the Pass of Pease^ baffled
the Earl of Argyle"'s attempts to enter the Merse,
as lieutenant of his sovereign. On this occasion,
the Borderers regarded with wonder and contempt
the barbarous array and rude equipage of their
northern countrymen. Godscroft has preserved the
beginning of a scoffing rhyme, made upon this oc-
casion :
The Earl of Argyle is bound to ride
From the border of Edgebucklin brae ; t
And all his habergeons him beside.
Each man upon a sonk of strae.
They made their vow that they would slay —
• « • ■ ■
Godscroft, v, 2, p. 101, Edit. 174.^.
• " To ding down Tantallon, and make a bridge to the
Bass," was an adage expressive of impossibility. The shat-
tered ruins of this celebrated fortress still overhang a tremen-
dous rock on the coast of East Lothian.
t Edgebucklin, near :Musselburgh.