Brief account of the Irvine family, County Fermanagh

CHAPTER IV.
From the time that Bruce had recovered the
independence of Scotland, and driven out the
armies of England from Scottish territory, a
strong spirit of hostility began to pervade the
borders of both kingdoms, which gave rise to
the establishment of that chronic system of
border warfare that was carried on henceforth
for several centuries under its own peculiar
laws, usages, &c. Moreover, as this border
warfare kept up continually a warlike temper
amongst the borderers, they frequently turned
their swords against each other, without re-
gard to nationality, by which means a series
of private feuds was engendered between the
Scottish families within their own borders in
addition to their national hostilities against
the English beyond. So that in fine, property
in that part of Dumfriesshire came, for the most
part, to be held by the sword, and the West
Marches became a kind of separate dominion,
in great measure outside of the sway and pro-
tection of the government and laws of the
kingdom.
The authority of the crown was often em-
ployed in attempting to restrain and suppress