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

116 MINSTIIEI-SY OF
this clan, associated with other banditti of the West
Marches, to the number of two or three hundred horse,
entered England in a hostile manner, and extended their
ravages as far as Penrith. James VI., then at Berwick,
upon his journey to his new capital, detached a large
force, under Sir William Selby, captain of Berwick, to
bring these depredators to order. Their raid, remarkable
for being the last of any note occurring in history, was
avenged in an exemplary manner. Most of the strong-
holds upon the Liddel were razed to the foundation, and
several of the principal leaders executed at Carlisle; after
which we find little mention of the Armstrongs in his-
tory. The precautions, adopted by the Earl of Dunbar,
to preserve peace on the Borders, bore peculiarly hard
upon a body of men, long accustomed to the most un-
governed licence. They appear, in a great measure, to
have fallen victims to the strictness of the new enact-
ments. — Redpath, p. 703, — Stow, 8I9. — Laing, vol.
I. The lands, possessed by them in former days, have
chiefly come into the hands of the Buccleuch family, and
of the Elliots ; so that, with one or two exceptions, we
may say, that, in the country which this warlike clan
once occupied, there is hardly left a land-holder of the
name.
One of the last Border reivers was, however, of this
family, and lived within the beginning of the last cen-
tury. After having made himself dreaded over the
whole country, he at last came to the following end : —
One , a man of large property, having lost twelve