Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/63

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But this single trace of ancient civil government is succeeded by many more vestiges of its former relaxation and irregularity, in the frequent ruins of castellated dwellings, built at a time when every house (as Mr. Pennant observes) was made defen- sible, and every owner garrisoned against his neigh- bour. When revenge at. one time dictated an inroad, and necessity at another. When the mis- tress of a castle has presented her sons with their spurs, to remind them that her larder was empty, and that by a forray they must supply it at the expence of the borderers; when every evening the sheep were taken from the hills, and the cattle from their pastures, to be secured in the. lower floor from robbers prowling like wolves for pre} - ; and the disappointed thief found ail in safety, from the fears of the cautious owner. When the following lines afforded a true sketch of existing manners:

" Then Johnny Armstrong to Willie 'gan say,

" Billie, a riding then will we; '' England and us have long been at feud,

" Perhaps we may hit on some bootu " Then they are come to Hutton-I r a,

" They rade that proper pla< e about; " But the laird he was a wi-er man,

" her he had left na geir about."

Gowland's-Tow- r, which we passed at the two- mile stone from Hawick', was an edifice of this de

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