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

110 MINSTRELSY OF
" men as the Borders had. This old man and his sonnes
" had not so few as two hundred at their commands,
" that -were ever ready to ride with them to all actions,
" at their beck.
" The high parts of the marsh (march) towards Scot-
" land were put in a mighty fear, and the chiefe of them,
" for themselves and the rest, petitioned to mee, and did
" assure mee, that unless I did take some course with
" them by the end of that summer, there was none of
" the inhabitants durst, or would, stay in their dwellings
" the next winter, but they would fley the countrey,
" and leave their houses and lands to the fury of the
•' outlawes. Upon this complaint, I called the gentlemen
" of the countrey together, and acquainted them with
" the misery that the highest parts of the marsh towai-ds
" Scotland were likely to endure, if there were not time-
" ly prevention to avoid it, and desired them to give mee
" their best advice what course were fitt to be taken.
" They all show^ed themselves willing to give mee their
" best counsailes, and most of them were of opinion, that
" Iwasnotwell advised to refuse the hundred horse that
" my Lord Euers had ; and that now my best way was
" speedily to acquaint the Queue and counsaille with
" the necessity of having more soldiers, and that there
" could not be less than a hundred horse sent down for
" the defence of the countrey, besides the forty I had
" already in pay, and that there w as nothing but force
" of soldiers could keep them in awe ; and to let the