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The Border Reivers |
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Borderers usually rode in family parties, in numbers that averaged between 12 and 50 men, although men could go out alone or in large scale raids of up to 2 or 3 thousand, depending on the size of the target. Raids began at muster points known as ‘trysts’. The raid was hazardous. Reivers had to dodge border guards and watches placed on hill passes and river fords, avoiding mobile patrols and tracker dogs. If they were caught, they faced execution.
The Reivers were undoubtedly skilled, and showed courage and bravery. They also had a disregard for authority, and delighted in outwitting the Wardens on both sides of the border. It is perhaps not difficult to see why they became romantic figures. As George MacDonald Fraser says in his history of the Reivers, ‘The Steel Bonnets’, “…it is easy to treat the Reiver as a hero figure because at times, he was indeed heroic.”
Sir Walter Scott has been criticised in much of his writing for depicting an overly romantic and even mythological picture of Scotland’s history. Walter Scott and the Borders
Scott was first introduced to the Border Ballads during visits to his grandfather’s farm near Kelso. In 1773, the young Walter became ill with what was probably polio, and was sent to his grandfather’s farm to recuperate. The illness severely affected Walter’s left leg, and he was forced to spend much of his time indoors, where he listened to tales of the Borders told to him by his grandfather and aunt. As an adult he retained his interest, and from the late 18th Century he collected ballads upon trips to the Borders, publishing ‘The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Borders’ in 1802. |
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When he published the border ballads, he certainly did not hesitate to edit and ‘improve’ them, but he did not invent the romantic Reiver heroes, these figures existed already in the ballads. However, Scott certainly did nothing to diminish the myth of the Reiver as a hero who fought to a code of honour, avoided unnecessary bloodshed and was decent at heart. The reality was often different.
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