name of _hobylers_. In the late autumn the moors and mosses were drier
than at any other season of the year, which made riding, in certain
districts especially, a much more easy and expeditious undertaking. Then
the winter supply had to be secured. The beef tub required replenishing,
and as the "mart" was rarely ever fed at home it had to be sought for
elsewhere. It was a case of all hands to work, and every available horse
or rider was brought into requisition.

Leslie has given a graphic description of the methods adopted by the
Border reivers to secure their booty. Everything was gone about in the
most orderly and deliberate manner. He says that the reivers never told
their beads with so much devotion as when they were setting out on a
marauding expedition, and expected a good booty as a recompense of their
devotion! "They sally out of their own borders in troops, through
unfrequented ways and many intricate windings. In the day time they
refresh themselves and their horses in lurking places they had pitched on
before, till they arrive in the dark at those places they have a design
upon. As soon as they have seized upon their booty, they, in like manner,
return home in the night; through blind ways and fetching many a compass.
The more skilful any captain is to pass through these wild deserts,
crooked turnings, and deep precipices, in the thickest mists and darkness,
his reputation is the greater, and he is looked upon as a man of an
excellent head, and they are so very cunning, that they seldom have their
booty taken from them, unless sometimes, when by the help of bloodhounds,
following them exactly upon the track, they may chance to fall into the
hands of their adversaries. When being taken they have so much persuasive
eloquence, and so many smooth and insinuating words at command, that if
they do not move their judges, nay and even their adversaries, to have
mercy, yet they incite them to admiration and compassion."

Such a skilful "Captain," as is here referred to, was the famous Hobbie
Noble, who terminated his adventurous career in "Merrie Carlisle," where
so many famous freebooters, at one time or other, have paid the last
penalty of the law. Speaking of himself, he says:--

"But will ye stay till the day gae down,
Until the night come o'er the ground,
And I'll be a guide worth ony twa
That may in Liddisdale be found!

"Though the night be dark as pick and tar,
I'll guide ye o'er yon hi