eaport. A decent public road is indispensable to an
industrial community: and a considerable portion of the trade of the
country was in the hands of the religious orders. The Monks of Melrose
sent wool to the Netherlands; others trafficked in corn, in timber, in
salmon.... Each community, each order, as was natural, had its
characteristic likings and dislikings. One house turned out the best
scholars and lawyers, another the finest wool and the sweetest mutton; one
was famed for poetry and history, another for divinity or medicine."[14]
It would therefore be nearer the truth to say that the monks made the
districts in which they lived rich and fertile; than that they found them
so, and took possession of them in consequence.

But beyond the sphere of these monastic institutions, the state of matters
from an agricultural point of view could hardly have been worse. This was
mainly due to the fact that, so far as Berwickshire and some parts of
Dumfriesshire are concerned, the tiller of the soil was never sure that he
would have the privilege of reaping his harvest. By the time the grain was
ready for the sickle an English army might invade the country and give the
crops to the flames. This happened so frequently, and the feeling of
insecurity thus became so great, that husbandry at times was all but
abandoned. There can be no doubt that this was one prime factor in
creating the poverty which was so long a marked and painful feature of the
life of the Scottish Borders.

On the other hand, there was a considerable extent of country, extending
from Jedburgh to Canobie, which was practically unfit for cultivation. The
Royal Forest of Ettrick was of great extent, and was reserved as a happy
hunting ground for the Court and its minions. Along the banks of the
Teviot and the Liddle, embracing a considerable portion of Roxburgh and
Dumfries, the extent of land capable of cultivation was by no means great,
even though it had been found practical, or politic, to put it under the
ploughshare. This region is one of the most mountainous in the South of
Scotland, and in ancient times abounded in quaking bogs and inaccessible
morasses. This district naturally became the favourite haunt of the Border
reiver. Here he could find ways and means either of securing his own
cattle, or those he had "lifted," from the search of the enemy by driving
them into some inaccessible retreat, the entrance to which it was
difficult, if not impossible, for