CHAPTER II.

BERWICK AS A FORTRESS-HALIDON HILL-DEFEAT OF THE SCOTCH PERSONAL ENCOUNTER-SIMILAR OCCURRENCE AT CASTALLA -OLD STUART-PISCATORIAL ESSAY-A PRIMITIVE ESTABLISH

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MENT-FISH THE WHITADDER.

BERWICK, with every fault which is found in ancient fortresses, was regular in its defences; the citadel (the castle) lies without the present enceinte of the place, and in many points the works are so vulnerable, that, were they in pristine repair and attacked by modern means, it must, now-a-days, be carried in an hour. To the military antiquarian it wants interest-and he only wonders that it held the important position formerly that it did. But things must be judged by contemporaneous circumstances; and in 1312, Berwick was possibly considered as formidable and its possession as consequential, as three centuries afterwards were Badajoz and Ciudad Rodrigo.

The site of a celebrated battle field is in the immediate vicinity, for Halidon Hill rises to the

westward, two miles distant from the town. In 1338, it was the scene of a bloody and a bloodless victory; the victors sustaining a loss in ridiculous proportion to the vanquished. Indeed, the return of casualties is absurd. No doubt that on the English part they were marvellously light, while on the Scottish side the slaughter was enormous, but the historical returns are utterly beyond credibility.

This memorable battle was fought upon the 19th of July, to relieve Berwick, which had conditionally surrendered, unless "two hundred men at arms" were thrown into the place on or before the 20th-Edward, in the mean time, occupying Halidon Hill, which overlooks the town and its approaches. On the evening of the 18th, Douglas, who commanded the Scottish army, crossed the Tweed, and bivouaced at Dunspark-and at noon next day, in four columns, assailed the English position-Edward forming his infantry into as many divisions to receive the attack.

The great error committed by Douglas, and one that entailed upon the beaten army the bloody defeat that it sustained, was the dismounting of his cavalry. Instead of holding his men at arms in reserve, their horses were committed to "pages and valets," and "the riders advanced to the combat on foot." Loaded as a horseman was VOL. II.

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DEFEAT OF THE SCOTCH.

at that period with defensive armour, to mount a steep eminence pari passu with light troops, rendered him, when came "the tug of war," totally unserviceable. The English archers, ever fatally superior to the Scotch, were ably posted on all the commanding points of the position, and, as the enemy mounted in close column, every arrow told. Breathless and broken, their assault on fresh troops and in perfect formation, could be nothing other than it proved. The attack was easily repulsed-and Edward, who had kept his cavalry in hand, with a chosen body of mounted archers and Irish auxiliaries, charged the disordered columns, and completed their destruction.

I stood upon the ground where Douglas was killed by a pikeman, and which still retains his name, and fancied that I looked upon the rout. From this commanding eminence the country all round was visible, and in imagination it was covered with the flying enemy. The fiery king was raging in their rear, and group after group were cut down, feebly resisting. The coward grooms had ridden from the bottom of the hill on witnessing the first repulse, and to their masters, cased in mail, escape was thus impossible. No wonder a pursuit continued for five miles produced a fearful slaughter;* and that many a

* The losses assigned by English chroniclers to the Scotch, were:-eight earls, ninety knights, four hundred esquires, and

PERSONAL ENCOUNTER.

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coronach was cried beyond the Tweed, when the tidings of "bloody Halidon" were carried across the border.

It was said that Edward sullied his brilliant success by subsequent barbarity, and putting to death many of his prisoners of rank the morning after the battle. The statement is made by Boece-but for the sake of common humanity and the character of the English king, it is to be hoped that the old chronicler was mistaken. Indeed a circumstance falsifies the chargeseveral persons of note returned by the monk defunct," figured afterwards in the stirring records of these troubled times.

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The ancient system of warfare was favourable to displays of personal heroism and strength, and few battles are recorded without allusions being made to the prowess or gallantry of individuals. Ridpath, in his Border History," relates the following event, which marked with evil augury the commencement of the action on Halidon Hill, and thus goes the story :

"When both sides were ready to engage, the shock of battle was a while suspended by the appearance of a Scotchman of gigantic stature, who had acquired the name of Turnbull, on thirty-five thousand rank and file. The Scotch admitted the latter, to have been ten thousand. The English casualties were ridiculously underrated; their killed being set down at a knight, an esquire, and thirteen privates!

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OCCURRENCE AT CASTALLA.

account of a brave exploit he had performed, in saving King Robert Bruce from being gored to death by a wild bull, which had overthrown him while he was hunting. Attended by a great mastiff, Turnbull approached the English army, and challenged any person in it to come forth, and fight a single combat with him. After a short pause of astonishment, the challenge was accepted by Sir Robert Benhale, a young Norfolk knight, inferior to the Scot in stature, but of great bodily strength, and yielding to none in military address. The mastiff flying out against Benhale, the brave knight brought a heavy blow upon his loins, and separated its hinder legs from the rest of its body; and, encountering immediately with Turnbull, he eluded by his address and agility the blows aimed at him, and first cut off the left arm, and then the head of his adversary."

Now, my dear Jack, although, in our days, personal encounters are not common, still they occasionally take place, and one which occurred at Castalla, in Suchet's action with Murray, appears only to want the dog, to render it a perfect pendant to the passage of arms between the Scottish giant and the Norfolk knight. Suchet having attacked the left of the allied position, "when the main body came upon the second battalion of the 27th, there was a terrible crash; for the ground having an abrupt declina