Historical and genealogical memoirs of the House of Hamilton

72 HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL MEMOIRS
james, bow the fine long hair which he wore, according to the fashion of the age,
' and hung the head over the battlements of Hume Castle.
The Earl of Arran was appointed to fill the vacant wardenship ; but the
Earl of Angus, who aspired to this office, was at no pains to conceal his
dissatisfaction at the preference. The new Lord Warden, overcoming the
difficulties of his situation, proceeded, with the greatest impartiality, and
committed to prison Sir George Douglas, the brother of Angus, and Mark
Ker, for some misdemeanour ; and, in a Parliament which was held at
Edinburgh in October, he received orders from the Estates to proceed
against the murderers of La Beaute, and to seize upon the castles of Hume,
Wedderburne, and Langton ; against whom he accordingly marched, and
they were delivered into his hands. The Earl of Arran had been elected,
by the members of the Regency, their president, and at this time had the
chief direction of affairs, but he was, upon all occasions, opposed by the
Earl of Angus, who nourished a decided enmity, and who still had great
influence ; nor was it long before the private animosity, which subsisted
between these two powerful noblemen, broke out into an open rupture.
1519. The plague raging this year in Edinburgh, the young King, for greater
pinken. ii. 182, 280. security, was carried, by the Earl of Arran, to the castle of Dalkeith.
The Earl, on his return to the city, was denied entrance by the citizens,
on the pretext that he meant to overawe them in the election of their ma-
gistrates; and, through the instigation of the partizans of Angus, the gates
were shut against him and his retinue. The Hamilton party within the
town, resenting this proceeding, continual skirmishes and bickerings passed
during the ensuing night ; in the course of which, the Deacon of the
Crafts, a person of some consideration in the city, was slain, and, what
was at first but a private quarrel between these two noblemen, soon be-
came a matter of public concern ; and a circumstance, which also about
this time happened in the south, helped to render the breach still wider.
Carr, the baron of Farnihairst, assumed the power of holding courts at
Jedburgh, which the Earl of Angus claimed as his exclusive right. In
this dispute, as usual, both parties had recourse to arms ; and Sir James
Hamilton of Finnart declaring for Farnihairst, set out for Kelso to his
assistance, attended by his own followers, and by four hundred borderers.
He had nearly reached that place, when he fell into an ambuscade, pre-
pared for him by Carr of Cessfurd and Somerville of Cambusnethan, both
of whom had espoused the interest of Angus. Sir James, with much pre-