s of the marchers, when stimulated only by the desire
of plunder, were never marked with cruelty, and seldom even with
bloodshed, unless in the case of opposition. They held, that property
was common to all who stood in want of it; but they abhorred and
avoided the crime of unnecessary homicide.--_Lesley_, p. 63. This was,
perhaps, partly owing to the habits of intimacy betwixt the borderers
of both kingdoms, notwithstanding their mutual hostility, and
reciprocal depredations. A natural intercourse took place between
the English and Scottish marchers, at border meetings, and during the
short intervals of peace. They met frequently at parties of the chace
and foot-ball; and it required many and strict regulations, on
both sides, to prevent them from forming intermarriages, and from
cultivating too close a degree of intimacy.--_Scottish Acts_, 1587,
c. 105; _Wharton's Regulations, 6th Edward VI._ The custom, also, of
paying black-mail, or protection-rent, introduced a connection betwixt
the countries; for, a Scottish borderer, taking black-mail from
an English inhabitant, was not only himself bound to abstain from
injuring such person, but also to maintain his quarrel, and recover
his property, if carried off by others. Hence, an union arose betwixt
the parties, founded upon mutual interest, which counteracted, in many
instances, the effects of national prejudice. The similarity of
their manners may be inferred from that of their language. In an
old mystery, imprinted at London, 1654, a mendicant borderer is
introduced, soliciting alms of a citizen and his wife. To a question
of the latter he replies, "Savying your honour, good maistress, I
was born in Redesdale, in Northomberlande, and come of a wight riding
sirname, call'd the Robsons: gude honeste men, and true, savyng a
little shiftynge for theyr livyng; God help them, silly pure men." The
wife answers, "What doest thou here, in this countrie? me thinke thou
art a Scot by thy tongue." _Beggar_--"Trowe me never mair then, good
deam; I had rather be hanged in a withie of a cow-taile, for thei are
ever fare and fase."--_Appendix to Johnstone's Sad Shepherd_, 1783. p.
188. From the wife's observation, as well as from the dialect of the
beggar, we may infer, that there was little difference between the
Northumbrian and the border Scottish; a circumstance interesting in
itself, and decisive of the occasional friendly intercourse among the
marchmen. From all those combining c