f it
with this apostrophe, now proverbial: "By my soul, had ye but four
feet, ye should not stand lang there." In short, as Froissard says of
a similar class of feudal robbers, nothing came amiss to them, that
was not _too heavy, or too hot_. The same mode of house-keeping
characterized most border families on both sides. An MS. quoted in
_History of Cumberland_, p. 466, concerning the Graemes of Netherby,
and others of that clan, runs thus: "They were all stark moss-troopers
and arrant thieves: both to England and Scotland outlawed: yet
sometimes connived at, because they gave intelligence forth of
Scotland, and would raise 400 horse at any time, upon a raid of the
English into Scotland." A saying is recorded of a mother to her son
(which is now become proverbial), "_Ride Rouly_ (Rowland), _hough's
i' the pot_;" that is, the last piece of beef was in the pot, and
therefore it was high time for him to go and fetch more. To such men
might with justice be applied the poet's description of the Cretan
warrior; translated by my friend, Dr. Leyden.

My sword, my spear, my shaggy shield,
With these I till, with these I sow;
With these I reap my harvest field,
The only wealth the Gods bestow.
With these I plant the purple vine,
With these I press the luscious wine.

My sword, my spear, my shaggy shield,
They make me lord of all below;
For he who dreads the lance to wield,
Before my shaggy shield must bow.
His lands, his vineyards, must resign;
And all that cowards have is mine.

_Hybrias (ap. Athenaeum)_.]

This brings us to the more immediate subject of the present
publication.

Lesley, who dedicates to the description of border manners a chapter,
which we have already often quoted, notices particularly the taste of
the marchmen for music and ballad poetry. "_Placent admodum sibi sua
musica, et rythmicis suis cantionibus, quas de majorum suorum gestis,
aut ingeniosis predandi precandive stratagematis ipsi confingunt_.
"--Leslaeus, _in capitulo de moribus eorum, qui Scotiae limites
Angliam versus incolunt_. The more rude and wild the state of society,
the more general and violent is the impulse received from poetry and
music. The muse, whose effusions are the amusement of a very small
part of a polished nation, records, in the lays of inspiration, the
history the laws, the very religion, of savages.--Where the pen and
the press are wanting, the low of numbers impresses upon the memory
of post