rum
Moor, a mile or two to the north-west, one of the last great
battlefields of the international struggle. In February, 1544, an
English army under Sir Ralph Evers and Sir Brian Latoun desolated the
Scottish frontier as far north as Melrose, defacing the Douglas tombs in
the abbey. On returning with their booty towards Jedburgh, they were
overtaken at Ancrum Moor, and severely beaten by a Scottish force led by
the Earl of Angus and Scott of Buccleuch. In this battle, according to
tradition, fought Maiden Lilliard, a brave Scotswoman from Maxton, who
fell beneath many wounds and was buried on the spot. Her grave, in the
midst of a thick fir-wood, carries the somewhat doggerel epitaph:
"Fair Maiden Lilliard
Lies under this stane;
Little was her stature,
But muckle was her fame
Upon the English loons
She laid monie thumps,
An' when her legs were cuttit off,
She fought upon her stumps."[C]
[C] An attempt has been made to discredit this story by an appeal to the
antiquity of the place-name, which is admittedly much earlier than
Lilliard's day. This, however, does not dispose of the tradition. The
likelihood is that originally the first line was really "the Fair Maid
_of_ Lilliard."
The monument has been frequently restored. Lady John Scott made the last
repairing touches, adding the words:
"To A' TRUE SCOTSMEN.
By me it's been mendit,
To your care I commend it."
PLATE 20
HOLLOWS TOWER
(SOMETIMES CALLED
GILNOCKIE TOWER)
FROM A WATER-COLOUR SKETCH
PAINTED BY
JAMES ORROCK, R.I.
(_See pp. 72 and 96_)
[Illustration]
The Jed, joining the Teviot close to Jedfoot Station, reminds us that
the county town of Roxburgh--Jedburgh--is within easy access, and the
fascinating valley of the Jed which Burns so vigorously extolled. The
Jed takes its rise between Needslaw and Carlintooth on the Liddesdale
Border. Its general course is east and north, and its length about
seventeen miles. The places of chief interest on its banks are
Southdean, where the Scottish chiefs assembled previous to Otterburn,
and where the poet Thomson spent his boyhood; Old Jedworth, the original
township, a few grassy mounds marking the spot; Ferniherst Castle, a Ker
stronghold; Lintalee, the site of a Douglas camp described in Barbour's
"Bruce;" the Capon Tree, a thousand years old, one of the last survivors
of "Jedworth's forest wild and free;" and the Hundalee hiding
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