The well-contested ground,
The warlike border-land--
to render the habits of the tribes who inhabited them before the union
of England and Scotland familiar to most of your readers. The rougher
and sterner features of their character were softened by their
attachment to the fine arts, from which has arisen the saying that, on
the frontiers every dale had its battle, and every river its song. A
rude species of chivalry was in constant use, and single combats were
practised as the amusement of the few intervals of truce which
suspended the exercise of war. The inveteracy of this custom may be
inferred from the following incident:--
Bernard Gilpin, the apostle of the north, the first who undertook to
preach the Protestant doctrines to the Border dalesmen, was surprised,
on entering one of their churches, to see a gauntlet, or mail-glove,
hanging above the altar. Upon inquiring the meaning of a symbol so
indecorous being displayed in that sacred place, he was informed by the
clerk, that the glove was that of a famous swordsman who hung it there
as an emblem of a general challenge and gage of battle, to any who
should dare to take the fatal token down. "Reach it to me," said the
reverend churchman. The clerk and sexton equally declined the perilous
office: and the good Bernard Gilpin was obliged to remove the glove
with his own hands, desiring those who were present to inform the
champion, that he, and no other, had possessed himself of the gage of
defiance. But the champion was as much ashamed to face Bernard Gilpin
as the officials of the church had been to displace his pledge of
combat.
The date of the following story is about the latter years of Queen
Elizabeth's reign; and the events took place in Liddesdale, a hilly and
pastoral district of Roxburghshire, which, on a part of its boundary,
is divided from England only by a small river;
During the good old times of _rugging and riving_, (that is, tugging
and tearing,) under which term the disorderly doings of the warlike age
are affectionately remembered, this valley was principally cultivated
by the sept or clan of the Armstrongs. The chief of this warlike race
was the Laird of Mangertown. At the period of which I speak, the estate
of Mangertown, with the power and dignity of chief, was possessed by
John Armstrong, a man of great size, strength and courage. While his
father was alive, he was distinguished from others of his clan who bore
the same name by the epithet of the _Laird's Jock_, that is to say, the
Laird's son Jock, or Jack. This name he distinguished by so many bold
and desperate achievements, that he retained it even after his father's
death, and is mentioned under it both in authentic records and in
tradition. Some of his feats are recorded in the Minstrelsy of the
Scottish Border, and others mentioned in contemporary chronicles.
At the species of singular combat which we have described, the Laird's
Jock was unrivalled; and no champion of Cumberland, Westmoreland, or
Northumberland, could endure the sway of the huge two-handed sword
which he wielded, and which few others could even lift. This "awful
sword," as the common people term it, was as dear to him as Durindana
or Fushberta to their respective masters, and was nearly as formidable
to his enemies as those renowned falchions proved to the foes of
Christendom. The weapon had been bequeathed to him by a celebrated
English outlaw named Hobbie Noble, who, having committed some deed for
which he was in danger from justice, fled to Liddesdale, and became a
follower, or rather a brother-in-arms, to the renowned Laird's Jock;
till, venturing into England with a small escort, a faithless guide,
and with a light single-handed sword instead of his ponderous brand,
Hobbie Noble, attacked by superior numbers, was made prisoner and
executed.
With this weapon, and by means of his own strength and address, the
Laird's Jock maintained the reputation of the best swordsman on the
Border side, and defeated or slew many who ventured to dispute with him
the formidable title.
But years pass on with the strong and the brave as with the feeble and
the timid. In process of time, the Laird's Jock grew incapable of
wielding his weapon, and finally of all active exertion, even of the
most ordinary kind. The disabled champion became at length totally
bed-ridden, and entirely dependent for his comfort on the pious duties
of an only daughter, his perpetual attendant and companion.
Besides this dutiful child, the Laird's Jock had an only son, upon whom
devolved the perilous task of leading the clan to battle, and
maintaining the warlike renown of his native country, which was now
disputed by the English upon many occasions. The young Armstrong was
active, brave, and strong, and brought home from dangerous adventures
many tokens of decided success. Still the ancient chief conceived, as
it would seem, that his son was scarce yet entitled by age and
experience to be entrusted with the two-handed sword, by the use of
which he had himself been so dreadfully distinguished.
At length, an English champion, one of the name of Foster, (if I
rightly recollect,) had the audacity to send a challenge to the best
swordsman in, Liddesdale; and young Armstrong, burning for chivalrous
distinction, accepted the challenge.
The heart of the disabled old man swelled with joy when he heard that
the challenge was passed and accepted, and the meeting fixed at a
neutral spot, used as the place of rencontre upon such occasions, and
which he himself had distinguished by numerous victories. He exulted so
much in the conquest which he anticipated, that, to nerve his son to
still bolder exertions, he conferred upon him, as champion of his clan
and province, the celebrated weapon which he had hitherto retained in
his own custody.
This was not all. When the day of combat arrived, the Laird's Jock, in
spite of his daughter's affectionate remonstrances, determined, though
he had not left his bed for two years, to be a personal witness of the
duel. His will was still a law to his people, who bore him on their
shoulders, wrapped in plaids and blankets, to the spot where the combat
was to take place, and seated him on a fragment of rock, which is still
called the Laird's Jock's stone. There he remained with eyes fixed on
the lists or barrier, within which the champions were about to meet.
His daughter, having done all she could for his accommodation, stood
motionless beside him, divided between anxiety for his health, and for
the event of the combat to her beloved brother. Ere yet the fight
began, the old men gazed on their chief, now seen for the first time
after several years, and sadly compared his altered features and wasted
frame, with the paragon of strength and manly beauty which they once
remembered. The young men gazed on his large form and powerful make, as
upon some antediluvian giant who had survived the destruction of the
Flood.
But the sound of the trumpets on both sides recalled the attention of
every one to the lists, surrounded as they were by numbers of both
nations eager to witness the event of the day. The combatants met. It
is needless to describe the struggle: the Scottish champion fell.
Foster, placing his foot on his antagonist, seized on the redoubted
sword, so precious in the eyes of its aged owner, and brandished it
over his head as a trophy of his conquest. The English shouted in
triumph. But the despairing cry of the aged champion, who saw his
country dishonoured, and his sword, long the terror of their race, in
possession of an Englishman, was heard high above the acclamations of
victory. He seemed, for an instant, animated by all his wonted power;
for he started from the rock on which he sat, and while the garments
with which he had been invested fell from his wasted frame, and showed
the ruins of his strength, he tossed his arms wildly to heaven, and
uttered a cry of indignation, horror, and despair, which, tradition
says, was heard to a preternatural distance, and resembled the cry of a
dying lion more than a human sound.
His friends received him in their arms as he sank utterly exhausted by
the effort, and bore him back to his castle in mute sorrow; while his
daughter at once wept for her brother, and endeavoured to mitigate and
soothe the despair of her father. But this was impossible; the old
man's only tie to life was rent rudely asunder, and his heart had
broken with it. The death of his son had no part in his sorrow. If he
thought of him at all, it was as the degenerate boy, through whom the
honour of his country and clan had been lost; and he died in the course
of three days, never even mentioning his name, but pouring out
uninterrupted lamentations for the loss of his sword.
I conceive, that the instant when the disabled chief was roused into a
last exertion by the agony of the moment is favourable to the object of
a painter. He might obtain the full advantage of contrasting the form
of the rugged old man, in the extremity of furious despair, with the
softness and beauty of the female form. The fatal field might be thrown
into perspective, so as to give full effect to these two principal
figures, and with the single explanation that the piece represented a
soldier beholding his son slain, and the honour of his country lost,
the picture would be sufficiently intelligible at the first glance. If
it was thought necessary to show more clearly the nature of the
conflict, it might be indicated by the pennon of Saint George being
displayed at one end of the lists, and that of Saint Andrew at the
Other.