and of their allies, the Elliots, occasioned the popular saying, “Elliots and Armstrongs ride thieves all.”—­But to what Border-family of note, in former days, would not such an adage have been equally applicable?  All along the river Liddel may still be discovered the ruins of towers, possessed by this numerous clan.  They did not, however, entirely trust to these fastnesses; but, when attacked by a superior force, abandoned entirely their dwellings, and retired into morasses, accessible by paths known to themselves alone.  One of their most noted places of refuge was the Tarras Moss, a desolate and horrible marsh, through which a small river takes its course.  Upon its banks are found some dry spots, which were occupied by these outlaws, and their families, in cases of emergency.  The stream runs furiously among huge rocks, which has occasioned a popular saying—­

  Was ne’er are drown’d in Tarras, nor yet in doubt,
  For e’er the head can win down, the harns (brains) are out.

The morass itself is so deep, that, according to an old historian, two spears tied together would not reach the bottom.  In this retreat, the Armstrongs, anno 1588, baffled the Earl of Angus, when lieutenant on the Border, although he reckoned himself so skilful in winding a thief, that he declared, “he had the same pleasure in it, as others in a hunting a hare.”  On this occasion he was totally unsuccessful, and nearly lost his relation, Douglas of Ively, whom the freebooters made prisoner.—­Godscroft Vol.  II. p. 411.

[Footnote 110:  In illustration of this position, the reader is referred to a long correspondence betwixt Lord Dacre and the Privy Council of England, in 1550, concerning one Sandye Armstrang, a partizan of England, and an inhabitant of the Debateable Land, who had threatened to become a Scottishman, if he was not protected by the English warden against the Lord Maxwell.—­See Introduction to Nicholson and Burn’s History of Cumberland and Westmoreland.]

Upon another occasion the Armstrongs were less fortunate.  They had, in one of their incursions, plundered the town of Haltwhistle, on the borders of Cumberland.  Sir Robert Carey, warden of the west marches, demanded satisfaction from the king of Scotland, and received for answer, that the offenders were no subjects of his, and that he might take his own revenge.  The English warden, accordingly entered Llddesdale, and ravaged the lands of the outlaws; on which occasion, Sim of the Cat-hill (an Armstrong) was killed by one of the Ridleys of Haltwhistle.  This incident procured Haltwhistle another visit from the Armstrongs, in which they burnt great part of the town, but not without losing one of their leaders, by a shot from a window.

“The death of this young man (says Sir Robert Carey) wrote (wrought) so deep an impression upon them (the outlaws), as many vowes were made, that, before the end of next winter, they would lay the whole Border waste.  This (the murder) was done about the end of May (1598).  The chiefe of all these outlaws was old Sim of Whittram.[111] He had five or six sonnes, as able men as the Borders had.  This old man and his sonnes had not so few as two hundred at their commands, that were ever ready to ride with them to all actions, at their beck.