For smaller predatory expeditions, the borderers had signals, and places of rendezvous, peculiar to each tribe.  If the party set forward before all the members had joined, a mark, cut in the turf, or on the bark of a tree, pointed out to the stragglers the direction which the main body had pursued[43].

[Footnote 43:  In the parish of Linton, in Roxburghshire, there is a circle of stones, surrounding a smooth plot of turf, called the Tryst, or place of appointment, which tradition avers to have been the rendezvous of the neighbouring warriors.  The name of the leader was cut in the turf, and the arrangement of the letters announced to his followers the course which he had taken.  See Statistical Account of the Parish of Linton.]

Their warlike convocations were, also, frequently disguised, under pretence of meetings for the purpose of sport.  The game of foot-ball, in particular which was anciently, and still continues to be, a favourite border sport, was the means of collecting together large bodies of moss-troopers, previous to any military exploit.  When Sir Robert Carey was warden of the east marches, the knowledge that there was a great match of foot-ball at Kelso, to be frequented by the principal Scottish riders, was sufficient to excite his vigilance and his apprehension[44].  Previous also to the murder of Sir John Carmichael (see Notes on the Raid of the Reidswire,) it appeared at the trial of the perpetrators that they had assisted at a grand foot-ball meeting, where the crime was concerted.

[Footnote 44:  See Appendix.]

Upon the religion of the borderers there can very little be said.  We have already noticed, that they remained attached to the Roman Catholic faith rather longer than the rest of Scotland.  This probably arose from a total indifference upon the subject; for, we no where find in their character the respect for the church, which is a marked feature of that religion.  In 1528, Lord Dacre complains heavily to Cardinal Wolsey, that, having taken a notorious freebooter, called Dyk Irwen, the brother and friends of the outlaw had, in retaliation, seized a man of some property, and a relation of Lord Dacre, called Jeffrey Middleton, as he returned from a pilgrimage to St. Ninian’s, in Galloway; and that, notwithstanding the sanctity of his character, as a true pilgrim, and the Scottish monarch’s safe conduct, they continued to detain him in their fastnesses, until he should redeem the said arrant thief, Dyk Irwen.  The abbeys, which were planted upon the border, neither seem to have been much respected by the English, nor by the Scottish barons.  They were repeatedly burned by the former, in the course of the border wars, and by the latter they seem to have been regarded chiefly as the means of endowing a needy relation, or the subject of occasional plunder.  Thus, Andrew Home of Fastcastle, about 1488, attempted to procure a perpetual feu of certain possessions belonging to