Another place on the Teviot, Carlenrig, not far from the source, near the Dumfries border, is celebrated as the scene of Johnnie Armstrong’s execution in the course of James V.’s hanging and hunting expedition. His keep was at Hole House, in Eskdale; but at the head of thirty-six bravely attired horsemen he came to Teviotdale and presented himself to the king, expecting to be received with favour. When James ordered him and his merry men to instant execution, he is represented as making a variety of large offers for pardon—as that he would bring in by a certain day, either quick or dead, any English subject, were he duke, earl, or baron, whom the king might name. But, his terms being all rejected, he said proudly, “It is folly to seek grace at a graceless face.” So—
“John murdered was at Carlinrigg,
And all his gallant cumpanie;
But Scotland’s heart was ne’er sae wae
To see sae mony brave men die.”
Among the Teviot’s vassal-streams are the Ale, whose “foaming tide” William of Deloraine swam in his night ride to Melrose; and the brawling Jed, which gives its name to the royal burgh on its banks—famous for “Jethart staves,” a species of battle-axe, and for “Jethart justice,” the equivalent of “Lydford law” in the West of England. One of those who came into the hangman’s hands at Jedburgh was Rattling Roaring Willie, the jovial harper at whose feet the “last minstrel” sat, with such excellent results. He could not brook that the tongue of the scoffer—
“Should tax his minstrelsy with wrong,
Or call his song untrue:
For this, when they the goblet plied,
And such rude taunt had chafed his pride,