dwelt on
lands granted by various donors to the church of St. Cuthbert--to rise
and march northward to fight for their lands. This great company set
out, in the autumn of 1018, and reached Carham on the Tweed, where they
were met by Malcolm king of the Scots. A comet had been seen in the sky
for some weeks and the fears inspired by this dread visitant seem to
have had more effect upon the Northumbrians than upon the Scots. From
whatever cause it arose, when the two forces joined in battle a panic
spread among the followers of St. Cuthbert. They were utterly routed,
and most of the leading Northumbrians as well as eighteen priests were
slain--thus curiously repeating the experience of the earlier battle of
Carham.

For the next three hundred years Northumberland was swept by successive
waves of raid and reprisal, in the course of which occurred the two
well-known events, the attack of William the Lion of Scotland on Alnwick
Castle, and the more famous affair still, the struggle between Percy and
Douglas known as the battle of Otterburn, which was fought in "Chevy
Chase" (Cheviot Forest). More important poetically than politically, it
stands out more vividly in the records of the time than many other
conflicts of larger import. The personal element in the fight, the deeds
of gallantry recorded, the sounding roll of the chief knights' names,
and the high renown of the two leaders, throw a glamour around this
particular contest which is kept alive by the ballads that chant the
praises of Percy or Douglas according as the singer was Scot or Saxon.
Sir Philip Sidney, that "verray parfit gentil knight" and discriminating
_litterateur_, said "I never heard the old song of Percie and Douglas
that I found not my hart mooved more than with a trumpet: and yet it is
sung but by some blynd Crowder,[11] with no rougher voyce than rude
stile! which beeing so evill apparelled in the dust and cobweb of that
uncivill age, what wolde it work trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of
Pindare!" [Footnote 11: Crowder = fiddler.]

In the endless warfare of the Borders the second of two short-lived
periods of truce had just expired, and an organised raid on a large
scale was arranged by the Scots. The main body was to ravage Cumberland;
and a smaller, but picked force led by Earls Douglas, Moray, and March
came southward by way of Northumberland. But Northumbrian towers and
towns knew nothing of their passing; they marched rapidly and by stealth