alled the East, West, and Middle
Marches. The wardens were, as a general rule, officers of high rank,
holding special commissions from the Crown. The English government had
little difficulty in finding gentlemen of high station and proved ability
to undertake the duties of such an office; but in Scotland the King was
considerably circumscribed in his choice, as the Border Chiefs were
accustomed to carry things with a high hand, and in any arrangements
relating to the management of affairs in their own districts, their wishes
and interests had, perforce, to be respected. The office of warden was
regarded as belonging, by a kind of prescriptive or hereditary right, to
one or other of the more prominent and powerful Border families. This
policy was fraught with many disadvantages, and, it must be frankly
admitted, produced the very evils it was designed to suppress. The
Scottish wardens had other objects in view besides the maintenance of a
certain semblance of law and order in the districts over which they ruled.
They seldom lost sight of their own pecuniary interests, and frequently
prostituted their high office to secure their own ends. The wardens
themselves were often the principal offenders.

In the East March the warden was most generally either an Earl of Home or
a Ker of Cessford. The Middle March was long under the supervision of the
Earls of Bothwell and the Lords of Buccleuch. The West March was usually
represented either by a Johnstone or a Maxwell.

The Scottish wardens, though invested with the most arbitrary powers,
found it politic to enter into bonds of alliance with the neighbouring
Chiefs, in order not only to increase their influence and power within
their own wardenries, but to add to their authority when called upon to
deal with questions of a more general nature. This fact reveals
unmistakably the weakness of the central government of the country at
this period, and indicates the important part which was played by the
nobility in the administration of the affairs of the nation.

Several of these "Bonds" have been preserved. Some of them are too lengthy
for quotation, but the following one--which is comparatively brief--may be
taken as a fair sample of the whole. It is subscribed by the Lairds of
Buccleuch, Hunthill, Bon-Jeddart, Greenhead, Cavers, and Redheugh, in
favour of Sir Thomas Ker of Fernihirst, and runs as follows:--"We
undersigned, inhabitants of the Middle March of this realm opposite
E