intment, 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
p