SCOTLAND.
Riding the Marches.
—The practice of Riding the Marches, says a writer in the Stat. Acc. of Scotland (1845, vol. iii. p. 399), is observed in the parish of Hawick, Roxburghshire. This ancient ceremonial takes place on the last Friday of May (old style), and is considered one of the most important days of the year. The honour of carrying the standard of the town devolves upon the cornet, a young man previously elected for the purpose; and he and the magistrates of the town on horseback, and a large body of the inhabitants and the burgesses, set out in procession for the purpose of riding round the property of the town, and making formal demonstration of their legal rights.
The following are a few stanzas from an ancient song, which is sung by the cornet and his attendants from the roof of an old tenement belonging to the town, and loudly joined in by the surrounding multitudes:—
“We’ll a’ hie to the muir a riding,
Drumlanrig gave it for providing
Our ancestors of martial order
To drive the English off our border.
At Flodden field our fathers fought it,
And honour gained, though dear they bought it;
By Teviot side they took this colour,
A dear memorial of their valour.
Though twice of old our town was burned,
Yet twice the foemen back we turned,
And ever should our rights be trod on,
We’ll face the foe to Tirioden.[64]
Up wi’ Hawick its rights and common!
Up wi’ a’ the border bowmen!
Tiribus and Tirioden.
We are up to guard the common.”
[64] The slogan or war-cry of the burgh was “Tiribus and Tirioden,” a phrase probably derived from the Saxons or Danes. The first word may be understood as making tolerably good Anglo-Saxon. Tyr hœbbe us; May Tyr have us in his keeping. Whilst the other conjoins the names of Tyr and Odin, whose united aid is supposed to be invoked.
Mr. Wilson, author of Annals and Old Memories of Hawick, thinks that the meaning of the phrase, in our sense, is, “Gods of thunder and war, protect us;” in another sense, “To battle, sons of the gods.”
The ancient feudal system of “the Riding of the Marches” by the burgesses still exists also at Inveresk, once within the fifty years. They appear mounted on horseback, and armed with swords. The seven incorporated trades, each headed by its captain, follow in the train of the magistrates and town-council, the whole cavalcade being preceded by the town officers, with their ancient Brabant spears, and a champion armed cap-a-pie. A gratuity is also allowed to a minstrel, who attends at the succeeding feast, and recites in verse the glories of the pageantry.[65]—Stat. Acc. of Scotland, 1845, vol. i. p. 268.
[65] Until about the year 1830, on the annual payment of their rent to the agent of the Duke of Buccleuch, an entertainment was given by the magistrates, under the title of “the Hen Feast.” It derived this title from the consideration that “the kain fowls” due by the lessees of the burgh mills were served up on this occasion.—Ibid., p. 269.
