Flyting of Polwart and Montgomery.

The domestic economy of the borderers next engages our attention.  That the revenue of the chieftain should be expended in rude hospitality, was the natural result of his situation.  His wealth consisted chiefly in herds of cattle, which were consumed by the kinsmen, vassals, and followers, who aided him to acquire and to protect them[59].  We learn from Lesley, that the borderers were temperate in the use of intoxicating liquors, and we are therefore left to conjecture how they occupied the time, when winter, or when accident, confined them to their habitations.  The little learning, which existed in the middle ages, glimmered a dim and a dying flame in the religious houses; and even in the sixteenth century, when its beams became more widely diffused, they were far from penetrating the recesses of the border mountains.  The tales of tradition, the song, with the pipe or harp of the minstrel, were probably the sole resources against ennui, during the short intervals of repose from military adventure.

[Footnote 59:  We may form some idea of the stile of life maintained by the border warriors, from the anecdotes, handed down by tradition, concerning Walter Scott of Harden, who flourished towards the middle of the sixteenth century.  This ancient laird was a renowned freebooter, and used to ride with a numerous band of followers.  The spoil, which they carried off from England, or from their neighbours, was concealed in a deep and impervious glen, on the brink of which the old tower of Harden was situated.  From thence the cattle were brought out, one by one, as they were wanted, to supply the rude and plentiful table of the laird.  When the last bullock was killed and devoured, it was the lady’s custom to place on the table a dish, which, on being uncovered, was found to contain a pair of clean spurs; a hint to the riders, that they must shift for their next meal.  Upon one occasion, when the village herd was driving out the cattle to pasture, the old laird heard him call loudly to drive out Harden’s cow. “Harden’s cow!” echoed the affronted chief—­“Is it come to that pass? by my faith they shall sune say Harden’s kye (cows).”  Accordingly, he sounded his bugle, mounted his horse, set out with his followers, and returned next day with “a bow of kye, and a bussen’d (brindled) bull.”  On his return with this gallant prey, he passed a very large hay-stack.  It occurred to the provident laird, that this would be extremely convenient to fodder his new stock of cattle; but as no means of transporting it occurred, he was fain to take leave of it with this apostrophe, now proverbial:  “By my soul, had ye but four feet, ye should not stand lang there.”  In short, as Froissard says of a similar class of feudal robbers, nothing came amiss to them, that was not too heavy, or too hot.  The same mode of house-keeping characterized most border families on both sides.  An MS. quoted in