The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

178
The His^hland MontJily.
THE SOCIAL LIFE AND LITERATURE
OF THE BORDERS.
BY
By Dr AITKEN.
the Borders are meant the counties of Berwick^
Roxburgh, Dumfries, and Selkirk, and from their
proximity to England they were the scenes of incessant
struggles and forays between the peoples of the two
countries. Like the Highlanders, also, the Border people
were divided into septs and clans, stated (I believe without
good authority) by Scott to number 18, and in the rolls
made up after the Statute of 1587 classified according to
the marches. There were also foraging and riding clans,
who attached themselves to some of the great families, to
whom they did service, and who became security for them ;
and in addition a class of men called vagabonds or broken
men, who had to find security to submit to the law, and
whose adventures form the subject of some of the most
striking ballads. The real Border man, indeed, belonging
to this class " said and imagined that to pyll and to robbe,
all things considered, was a good lyfe." With all this,
however, he was faithful and true to his superior, ready for
any and every adventure. Such a man, in fact, as Scott has
represented William of Deloraine in the " Lay of the Last
Minstrel."
But this life of insecurity and lawlessness, brightened
into one of adventure and romance by the genius of Scott,
had long since passed away, and the audacity and boldness
of the moss-trooper had been succeeded by the calm and
peace of pastoral life, by the beginnings of those industries,
now forming the chief wealth of many of the border towns,
whilst the people had passed through periods of trial in
relation to their deepest convictions, or devotion to a fallen