successive English monarchs to reduce Scotland to a state of vassalage.
From the time of Edward this object was never altogether lost sight of.
Again and again the project seemed on the eve of accomplishment, but some
untoward event always occurred to render the scheme abortive. Doubtless,
had the union of the Crowns taken place at an earlier period, both
countries would have escaped some unpleasant and regrettable experiences.
There can be no doubt that the hostility which marked the relationships of
the two nations, had--at least from an economic point of view--an
injurious effect on the people of Scotland. Industry in all its branches
was crippled by the constant turmoil which prevailed. The Scottish kings,
moreover, were "cribb'd, cabin'd, confin'd" by the ambitions and
jealousies of a turbulent and factious nobility, who, in their relations
to the State, were too frequently dominated by unpatriotic and selfish
motives. Had it been possible for the sovereign to lay a strong hand on
his nobles, and compel them to pay more regard to imperial interests than
to their own private ends and petty jealousies, all might have been well.
But such a course was often practically impossible. The barons were all
powerful within their own domain, and when it served their purposes they
seldom hesitated even to usurp the authority of the king. This abnormal
condition of affairs made the government of the country a matter of
extreme difficulty, and gave rise to endless trouble and vexation. No
doubt it may legitimately be argued that, painful as this state of matters
undoubtedly was, it was after all better that the Scottish nation should
have retained its independence, with all the drawbacks attaching thereto,
than that it should have conceded the demand of England for annexation.
The difficulties of the situation were the making of the people. This may
be frankly admitted. But, at the same time, it was a good thing for the
country when at last the Scottish king ascended the English throne, and
became the ruler of both nations. A new era was thus inaugurated, an era
of progressive wellbeing in nearly every department of national life.
It is worthy of note that, for a few years before James succeeded to the
throne of England, his feeling towards the Scottish Borderers had become
considerably modified. Whether this was due to the influence of the
reproachful letters on the state of the Borders addressed to him by
Elizabeth, or to the additional subsidy of L2000 per annum, now guaranteed
to him out of the English exchequer, is a question about which there may,
legitimately, be difference of opinion. In any case he now saw that it
would be advantageous, from a personal as well as from a national point of
view, to curb as far as he possibly could the lawless propensities of the
reiving fraternity. In so doing he was wisely anticipating the time when
he would be responsible for good rule on both sides of the Border. It may
thus be said that even the prospect of the union of the Crowns under James
had a beneficial effect. Coming events cast their shadows before. It led
to the adoption of a wiser policy in regard to this particular part of the
realm, with the result that for some years prior to 1603, a noticeable
improvement had taken place in Border affairs. The wardens had become more
anxious than before to discharge the duties of their high office with
impartiality, and to use their utmost endeavour to restrain the more
lawless spirits among the clansmen over whom they exercised authority.
Crime was at once more expeditiously and severely punished. A firm hand
was laid on the ringleaders in Border strife; and though these men were
not easily daunted, and chafed bitterly under the restraints laid upon
them by those in authority, yet they were soon made to realise that a new
spirit was being infused into the administration, and that in consequence
reiving was becoming an increasingly difficult and perilous business. But
great social revolutions are not brought about in a day; and, as we shall
see, it was long ere the Borders settled down into their present normal
condition.
When James ascended the throne of England, the change which had been
silently taking place in the management of Border affairs became at once
more marked and widespread. The effect of this event was unmistakable in
every department of the national life. It created, no doubt, considerable
bitterness and jealousy in certain sections of society in England, as it
was believed that the King was unduly partial to his own countrymen in the
bestowment of his favours. This was certainly not the case, as James was
far more anxious to conciliate his English subjects than to favour his
native land. It would have been well for him, and his successors in
office, had he discharged his duty to Scotland with less regard to English
prejudices.
He was determined, however, at all hazards to suppress Border reiving. Ten
days after his arrival in London he issued a proclamation requiring all
those guilty of _the foul and insolent outrages_ lately committed on the
Borders, to submit themselves to his mercy before the twentieth of June,
under penalty of being excluded from it for ever. Two days after this
proclamation had been made he emitted another, declaring his fixed
resolution to accomplish the union of the two realms; in consequence of
which, the bounds possessed by the rebellious Borderers should no more be
the _extremities_ but the _middle_, and the inhabitants thereof reduced to
a perfect obedience. He said that he had found in the hearts of his best
disposed subjects of both realms, a most earnest desire for this union;
and he undertook, with the advice and consent of the Estates of both
Parliaments, to bring it about. In the meantime he declared that he
considered the two kingdoms _as presently united_; and required his
subjects to view them in the same light, and in consequence thereof, to
abstain from mutual outrages and injuries of whatever kind, under the
penalty of his highest displeasure and of suffering the strictest rigour
of justice.[130]
In pursuance of this policy, and in order to extinguish all past
hostilities between his kingdoms, the King prohibited the name of
_Borders_ any longer to be used, substituting in its place the name
_Middleshires_. He also ordered all the places of strength, with the
exception of the habitations of noblemen and barons, to be demolished;
their iron gates to be converted into ploughshares; and the inhabitants
were enjoined to betake themselves to agriculture and other works of
peace.
But these severe measures, accompanied as they were by the summary
execution of large numbers of the worst characters on the Borders, who, as
we have seen, were sent to the gallows without ceremony, would not have
been sufficient of themselves to eradicate the evil. More potent
influences, however, were brought into operation. The law was now
administered, not spasmodically as before, but with a continuity and
impartiality hitherto unknown and unattainable. It was the interest of the
King and of the Government to repress disorder, to punish the lawless and
disobedient, and to establish order and good rule throughout both
kingdoms; and the consequence was that, in course of time, the Border
reivers were made to realise that they must, perforce, abandon their old
habits and betake themselves to a new mode of life. This desirable end was
not attained without difficulty. Border reiving did not altogether cease
for nearly a hundred years after the union of the Crowns; but the
beginning of the seventeenth century inaugurated the period of its
decline.
"The succession of James to the Crown of England," Ridpath remarks, "and
both kingdoms thus devolving on one sovereign, was an event fruitful of
blessing to each nation. The Borders, which for many ages had been almost
a constant scene of rapine and devastation, enjoyed, from this happy era,
a quiet and order which they had never before experienced; and the island
of Britain derived from the union of the two Crowns, a tranquility and
serenity hitherto unknown, and was enabled to exert its whole native
force. National prejudices, and a mutual resentment, owing to a series of
wars betwixt the kingdoms, carried on for centuries, still however
subsisted, and disappointed James' favourite scheme of an entire and
indissoluble union. From the same source also arose frequent disputes and
feuds upon the Marches, which by the attention of the sovereign were soon
and easily composed; and are not of moment enough to merit a particular
relation. But it required almost a hundred years, though England and
Scotland were governed all the time by a succession of the same princes,
to wear off the jealousies and prepossessions of the formerly hostile
nations, and to work such a change in their tempers and views, as to admit
of an incorporating and an effectual union."[131]
But another and most important agent in the pacification and social
regeneration of the Borders was the development, under the fostering care
of the Church, of what is known as the Parochial system of education. The
Roman Catholic Church in earlier times was not, as has sometimes been
erroneously supposed, inimical to the intellectual culture of the nation.
In its palmy days it undertook the work of educating the people with an
enthusiasm which commands the respect of most unbiased students of our
national history.
In this respect the monasteries, especially, rendered important services
to the community. Long before the Reformation there were at least three
classes of schools in Scotland--the "Sang Schools," connected with the
Cathedrals or more important Churches--the "Grammar Schools," which were
founded in the principal burghs in the country--and the "Monastic
Schools," which were, as the name implies, connected with the monasteries.
"The interest in education," says Prof. Story, "which had distinguished
the Columban Church, was not seriously impaired by its amalgamation with
the Church of Rome. It survived in active force, and before the foundation
of any of the existing public schools of England (the oldest of which is
Winchester, founded in 1387), we find the charge of the schools of
Roxburghshire intrusted in 1241 to the monks of Kelso, over whom was an
official called 'The Rector of the Schools.'"[132]
But for a considerable period prior to the Reformation, the interest of
the Roman Catholic Church in education, as well as in regard to the moral
and spiritual well-being of the people, had become enfeebled. The
monasteries had ceased to be, what they were in earlier times, centres of
gracious intellectual and spiritual influence. And nowhere was this more
conspicuously the case than on the Borders. The lawlessness of the clans
reacted on the life of the Church, and instead of the Church overcoming
the malign and disintegrating influences by which it was assailed, it was
unhappily overcome by them. Education in all its branches was shamefully
neglected. The most eminent barons in the land were often unable even to
write their own names. When they were under the necessity of adhibiting
their signatures to deed or charter, the pen had to be guided by the hand
of the notary. In these circumstances it is not difficult to imagine how
densely ignorant the great body of the people must have been.
Whatever may be said for or against the Reformation, there will be a
general consensus of opinion, among educationists especially, that the
scheme propounded by John Knox for the education of the people is in many
respects an ideal one. It is thus outlined in the Book of Discipline:--"Of
necessitie therefore we judge it, that every several kirk have one
schoolmaister appointed, such a one at least as is able to teach grammar
and the Latin tongue, if the town be of any reputation. If it be upland
where the people convene to the doctrine but once in the week, then must
either the reader or the minister there appointed take care of the
children and youth of the parish, to instruct them in the first
rudiments, especially in the Catechism [Calvin's Catechism] as we have it
now translated in the Book of Common Order, called the Order of Geneva.
And furder, we think it expedient, that in every notable town, and
specially in the town of the superintendent, there be erected a Colledge,
in which the arts, at least logick and rhetorick, together with the
tongues, be read by sufficient masters, for whom honest stipends must be
appointed. As also that provision be made for those that be poore, and not
able by themselves nor by their friends to be sustained at letters, and in
special these that come from landward."[133]
Unfortunately, owing to the rapacity of the nobles, this splendid scheme
of national education was not carried out in its entirety. But though the
enlightened views which the Reformers thus endeavoured to impress both
upon the Parliament and the country were not so heartily and widely
adopted as they should have been, a beginning was made in the
establishment of parochial schools, and by this means the benefits of
education were brought within the reach of the great body of the people.
It has been justly remarked that if the counsel of the Reformers had been
followed, no country in the world would have been so well supplied as
Scotland with the means of extending the benefits of a liberal education
to every man capable of intellectual improvement.
The state of the Borders, however, for at least fifty years after the
Reformation, was such as to make it difficult in some places, and all but
impossible in others, to establish and maintain parochial schools. But in
course of time, as things began to improve, owing to the more systematic
and impartial administration of the law, the work of training the youth of
the district was entered upon with energy and enthusiasm. The beneficial
results of the new regime in matters educational soon became apparent.
Crime steadily decreased. The old reiving habits were gradually, if with
difficulty, abandoned, and increased attention was given to the peaceful
pursuits of agriculture and other industries; and out of the social chaos
which had so long been a notorious feature of Border life, a healthy,
vigorous, law-abiding community was evolved.
But the most potent factor in the pacification and moral regeneration of
the Borders was the influence and teaching of the Church. The religious
condition of the people in this part of the country, both before and after
the Reformation, can only be described as utterly deplorable. The fierce
fighting Border clans had practically broken with institutional religion
in all its forms. It is frequently said of them, and not without good
reason, that they feared neither God nor man. They delighted in robbing
and burning churches, and held both priest and presbyter in high disdain.
Johnie Armstrong of Gilnockie is credited with having destroyed, during
the course of his career, no fewer than fifty-two parish churches. The
picture of the religious condition of the Borders, as reflected in the
State Papers, is well fitted to awaken painful reflections. Eure, for
example, in a letter addressed to Queen Elizabeth, in the year 1596,
says:--"Another most grievous decay is the 'want of knowledge of God,'
whereby the better sort forget oath and duty, let malefactors go without
evidence, and favour a partie belonging to them or their friends. The
churches mostly ruined to the ground, ministers and preachers 'comfortless
to come and remain where such heathenish people are,' so there are neither
teachers nor taught."[134] In a still more doleful strain the Bishop of
Durham describes the irreligious condition of the Borders. "Diverse
persons," he says, "under pretext of danger to their persons, and some
through a careless regard of their conscience toward their flocks, besides
also other out of a continual corruption of their patrons, turn residence
into absence, whereby the people are almost totally negligent and ignorant
of the truth professed by us, and so the more subject to every subtile
seducer."[135] So completely, indeed, had religious teaching fallen into
abeyance that one writer even goes the length of affirming that "many die,
and cannot say the Lord's Prayer."[136]
The Commission appointed to inquire into the state of affairs on the
Borders, after the breaking of Carlisle castle by Buccleuch, and to
discover, if possible, some remedy for the clamant evils which prevailed,
suggested in the first paragraph of their report "that ministers be
planted at every Border Church to inform the lawless people of their duty,
and watch over their manners--the principals of each parish giving their
prime surety for due reverence to the pastor in his office; the said
churches to be timely repaired."[137]
The propriety and wisdom of this deliverance will not be seriously
questioned by those who have some knowledge of the motives and principles
by which human life is moulded and governed. Religion is the bulwark of
society and the State--the necessary condition alike of their existence
and wellbeing. It was therefore clearly perceived by those responsible for
the social and moral wellbeing of this much distracted region that some
effective measures must be adopted to revive the religious life of the
people. The task was none of the easiest. Ruined churches had to be
restored; ministers had to be found, and "honest stipends" provided; and
the community from an ecclesiastical point of view reorganized. And, as
might be expected, the changes contemplated were not easily or quickly
effected. Old habits are not readily abandoned, and consequently it took
many years to raise the general religious life of the Borders to the level
of that of other districts of the country where the conditions, to begin
with, were more favourable. Even in the beginning of the eighteenth
century, when that renowned minister, the Rev. Thomas Boston, began his
pastorate in Ettrick, the state of matters from a religious point of view
was such as might well have appalled the stoutest heart. His parishioners
were rude and lawless to a degree. We are told that on Sundays some of
them went, not to church, but to the churchyard, and tried to drown the
voice of the preacher by producing all sorts of discordant sounds; and
even those who ventured within the walls ostensibly to worship, would rise
up during the service with "rude noise and seeming impatience," and leave
the building. The condition of this parish--and others in the district
were probably not much better--has been not inaptly described as "an
unploughed field covered with tangled weeds and thorns, and sheltering
many foul creatures." But the morals of the people, under the influence of
the faithful ministrations of Boston, were gradually reformed, and the
desert was made to bud and blossom like the rose. And what was effected
in this particular district may be taken as a fair sample of the good work
accomplished by the Church throughout the whole length of the Borders. Its
influence was potent and far-reaching, and mighty to the pulling down of
the strongholds of evil. "How did it happen," says a modern writer, "that
the raiding and reiving race which inhabited the Borders became so
peaceful and law-abiding? That were a long tale to tell, but the credit of
it belongs to those preachers Sir Walter was too superfine and cavalier to
understand. In this work his own great-grandfather, for nineteen years the
faithful and diligent minister of Yarrow, bore his own part, and, though
the great-grandson owed his genius to his mother, the minister's
grand-daughter, he failed to appreciate the most characteristic treasure
of his inheritance. He remembered that Richard Cameron--founder of the
Cameronians, sternest of Presbyterian sects--was once chaplain to the
Harden Scotts, but he could see no heroism in the uncompromising preacher,
who had dared to rebuke Harden's too compliant faith and indulgent temper.
Yet over Annandale, throughout Moffatdale, thence flowing over into the
Forest, the name of Cameron was one of power. The heroic strain in him
suited the mood of the ancient reivers, who loved strength and iron in the
blood. But the Scotts had ridden and lorded it over the Marches too long
to love iron in any blood save their own. Their feud with the preachers
began early, for John Welsh, Knox's son-in-law, was persecuted out of
Selkirk, whither he had gone to convert the souters and reform the
freebooters of the Forest, by a Scott of Headshaw. But the man who ought
here to be placed foremost is a man who became minister of Ettrick three
years before John Rutherford, Scott's ancestor, died--Thomas Boston.
Cotter Morrison quoted some of his fierce sayings with the horror of a son
of light suddenly confronting an altogether incredible darkness. But no
man ignorant of the deeds of Boston can judge his speech. In some of his
words there is a wonderful tenderness, in his acts a marvellous integrity,
and in his thought a rare power to move the hearts, stir the consciences,
and awaken the intellects of his people. It was a brave thing to make the
stern Presbyterian discipline a reality among these men of the Forest, in
whom the old reiving instinct was still strong, at once kept alive and
glorified by the ballads which were known in every cottage, and recited at
every hearth. But the man was patient and strong enough to do it; nothing
was too minute to escape his eye; nothing was too inveterate to silence or
too ancient to overcome his religion."[138] It is undoubtedly to the
influence of such preachers, men of faith and character, scholarship and
genius, that Borderers owe many of the best qualities, both of intellect
and heart, for which, in later times, they have become distinguished.
XVI.
THE HARVEST OF PEACE.
When this loose behaviour I throw off,
And pay the debt I never promised,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hope;
And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
SHAKESPEARE.