From these enactments, the power of the border chieftains may be conceived; for it had been hard and useless to have punished them for the trespasses of their tribes, unless they possessed over them unlimited authority.  The abode of these petty princes by no means corresponded to the extent of their power.  We do not find, on the Scottish borders, the splendid and extensive baronial castles, which graced and defended the opposite frontier.  The gothic grandeur of Alnwick, of Raby, and of Naworth, marks the wealthier and more secure state of the English nobles.  The Scottish chieftain, however extensive his domains, derived no advantage, save from such parts as he could himself cultivate or occupy.  Payment of rent was hardly known on the borders, till after the union[37].  All that the landlord could gain, from those residing upon his estate, was their personal service in battle, their assistance in labouring the land retained in his natural possession, some petty quit-rents, of a nature resembling the feudal casualties, and perhaps a share in the spoil which they acquired by rapine[38].  This, with his herds of cattle and of sheep, and with the black mail, which he exacted from his neighbours, constituted the revenue of the chieftain; and, from funds so precarious, he could rarely spare sums to expend in strengthening or decorating his habitation.  Another reason is found in the Scottish mode of warfare.  It was early discovered, that the English surpassed their neighbours in the arts of assaulting or defending fortified places.  The policy of the Scottish, therefore, deterred them from erecting upon the borders buildings of such extent and strength, as, being once taken by the foe, would have been capable of receiving a permanent garrison[39].  To themselves, the woods and hills of their country were pointed out, by the great Bruce, as their safest bulwarks; and the maxim of the Douglasses, that “it was better to hear the lark sing, than the mouse cheep,” was adopted by every border chief.  For these combined reasons, the residence of the chieftain was commonly a large square battlemented[40] tower, called a keep, or peel; placed on a precipice, or on the banks of a torrent, and, if the ground would permit, surrounded by a moat.  In short, the situation of a border house, surrounded by woods, and rendered almost inaccessible by torrents, by rocks, or by morasses, sufficiently indicated the pursuits and apprehensions of its inhabitant.—­“Locus horroris et vastae solitudinis, aptus ad praedam, habilis ad rapinam, habitatoribus suis lapis erat offensiones et petra scandali, utpote qui stipendiis suis minime contenti totum de alieno parum de suo possidebant—­totius provinciae spolium.”  No wonder, therefore, that James V., on approaching the castle of Lochwood, the antient seat of the Johnstones, is said to have exclaimed, “that he who built it must have been a knave in his heart.”  An outer wall, with some slight fortifications, served