carry your fire in your mind and muscles not Ray Mears, I think Mary Johnson, woman chief of the savvi island in the Pacific ocean. cheers the interceptor boy.
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- Thread starter Ranger1
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If you'll be kind enough to bear with me, here are a few wee gem I discovered a few months ago while doing research on the Border Reivers on the Scottish/English Border of the C16th.
Being a perpetual war-zone, the inhabitants of both sides of the Border had developed survival strategies independent of economy, state or monarchies. This involved the reiving of livestock and taking of whatever they thought of value. As their way of life, they saw this as their right rather than theft.
The phrase "There'll be moonlight again!" was attributed by writer Will Ogilvie in the poem Whaup o' the Rede [1909] to Wat o' Harden, Walter Scott of Harden, as a threatening voice during a Scott raid into Redesdale in Northumberland, and to make the point that one raid didn't settle the score between the Scotts and their enemies
The phrase is in fact recorded as spoken by Will o' Harden in a publication of Border March Warden records and letters entitled The Callendar of Border Papers, most certainly as a voice of defiance but in the context of the unification of the Crowns and the Long Guid Night in the riegn of James VI & Ist in pacifying the Borders.
A carved stone above the present house of Harden carries the Scott of Harden crest, a crescent moon with the motto, "Reparabit cornua Phoebe", which translates as "There will be moonlight again".
Wat o' Harden is also recorded as stating that "the lands of Gilmanscleugh are well worth a dead son!"
The Johnstone of Annandale family crest carries a winged spur and the motto, "Nunquam non paratus", which translates as "Never Unprepared", or "Ready, Aye Ready". On the Annandale Irvings crest, three sprigs of holly leaves and the motto, "Sub sole sub umbra virens", "Flourish in sunshine and shade", and there is a tradition in Cumbria that the chief of the Charletons was served a dish of spurs by his wife when the cupboard was bare!
The Lord Lieutenant of the English Marches, Lord Dacre remarked on the pitfalls of recruiting "English men good and true" from the English Borders, that they have an uncanny ability to count heads in total darkness and seem instinctively to know when they're outnumbered, and that "the Red Cross is so lightly tacked to their clothes that the slightest breeze will blow it away".
Lord Dacre's observation is one which King James wouldn't have disgreed with, as he once described the Scottish Borderers as "Scottish by convenience, English at will.", and Lord Scrope once wrote from Carlisle that an Englishman named Graham had threatened that if he didn't get justice from the English Warden he would become Scots!
Sir John Forster, English Middle March Warden reported seeing English and Scottish Borderers actually chatting on the battlefield, and who "made a play at the fight" once they realised they'd been spotted. John Forster was later said to be one of the greatest rogues on the entire Border, and amongst the many accusations laid against him was being in conspiracy with "Northumberland Wreckers", hanging his neighbours without trial, and once accused of feeding up cattle on his land which were meant to feed the garrison.
At what is known as "The Raid of Redeswire" (elevated to "The Battle of Redeswire" by the Scots), what was supposed to be a Warden's meeting to settle the final details of a Truce, turned into a prolonged skirmish resulting in the capture of Forster and some other English nobles. Queen Elizabeth ordered an investigation into affair and released the Scottish March Warden who was ordered to present himself at York by King James (these are scary people), when Elizabeth discovered that Sir John Forster had begun the Truce negotiations by firing a cannon at the Scots, which he had concealed in a haystack.
And like the retired gun-fighter of the American Western, young blood saw the opportunity of carving a niche for themselves on the name of Old John Forster, and when a gang of Scots attacked his house near Durham he escaped from an upstairs window. He was 93 years years old at the time.
I write this to set the scene of an existence which, although spanning only about 150 years of recorded history, had probably been a way of life predating the Norman invasion, and quite likely by a long shot. The place names indicate combinations of Brythonic, Celtic and Saxon tongues, possibly the inheritance of a people who were niether fish nor fowl, as they most certainly didn't recognise the legitimacy of either Nation State.
And here is one absolute gem of a C16th moral from a people whose very existence depended on having their wits about them at all times, and especially when on a night raid...
Keip thine lugs lang to fell and dell
And thine een sharpe aboot thinesell
Tho thine awin mau bide clappit well
Lest thine awin tonge thi sinnes suld tell
Keep your ears long to fell and dell
And your eyes sharp about yourself
Though your own mouth, keep shut well
Lest your own tongue your sins should tell
Pango.
Being a perpetual war-zone, the inhabitants of both sides of the Border had developed survival strategies independent of economy, state or monarchies. This involved the reiving of livestock and taking of whatever they thought of value. As their way of life, they saw this as their right rather than theft.
The phrase "There'll be moonlight again!" was attributed by writer Will Ogilvie in the poem Whaup o' the Rede [1909] to Wat o' Harden, Walter Scott of Harden, as a threatening voice during a Scott raid into Redesdale in Northumberland, and to make the point that one raid didn't settle the score between the Scotts and their enemies
The phrase is in fact recorded as spoken by Will o' Harden in a publication of Border March Warden records and letters entitled The Callendar of Border Papers, most certainly as a voice of defiance but in the context of the unification of the Crowns and the Long Guid Night in the riegn of James VI & Ist in pacifying the Borders.
A carved stone above the present house of Harden carries the Scott of Harden crest, a crescent moon with the motto, "Reparabit cornua Phoebe", which translates as "There will be moonlight again".
Wat o' Harden is also recorded as stating that "the lands of Gilmanscleugh are well worth a dead son!"
The Johnstone of Annandale family crest carries a winged spur and the motto, "Nunquam non paratus", which translates as "Never Unprepared", or "Ready, Aye Ready". On the Annandale Irvings crest, three sprigs of holly leaves and the motto, "Sub sole sub umbra virens", "Flourish in sunshine and shade", and there is a tradition in Cumbria that the chief of the Charletons was served a dish of spurs by his wife when the cupboard was bare!
The Lord Lieutenant of the English Marches, Lord Dacre remarked on the pitfalls of recruiting "English men good and true" from the English Borders, that they have an uncanny ability to count heads in total darkness and seem instinctively to know when they're outnumbered, and that "the Red Cross is so lightly tacked to their clothes that the slightest breeze will blow it away".
Lord Dacre's observation is one which King James wouldn't have disgreed with, as he once described the Scottish Borderers as "Scottish by convenience, English at will.", and Lord Scrope once wrote from Carlisle that an Englishman named Graham had threatened that if he didn't get justice from the English Warden he would become Scots!
Sir John Forster, English Middle March Warden reported seeing English and Scottish Borderers actually chatting on the battlefield, and who "made a play at the fight" once they realised they'd been spotted. John Forster was later said to be one of the greatest rogues on the entire Border, and amongst the many accusations laid against him was being in conspiracy with "Northumberland Wreckers", hanging his neighbours without trial, and once accused of feeding up cattle on his land which were meant to feed the garrison.
At what is known as "The Raid of Redeswire" (elevated to "The Battle of Redeswire" by the Scots), what was supposed to be a Warden's meeting to settle the final details of a Truce, turned into a prolonged skirmish resulting in the capture of Forster and some other English nobles. Queen Elizabeth ordered an investigation into affair and released the Scottish March Warden who was ordered to present himself at York by King James (these are scary people), when Elizabeth discovered that Sir John Forster had begun the Truce negotiations by firing a cannon at the Scots, which he had concealed in a haystack.
And like the retired gun-fighter of the American Western, young blood saw the opportunity of carving a niche for themselves on the name of Old John Forster, and when a gang of Scots attacked his house near Durham he escaped from an upstairs window. He was 93 years years old at the time.
I write this to set the scene of an existence which, although spanning only about 150 years of recorded history, had probably been a way of life predating the Norman invasion, and quite likely by a long shot. The place names indicate combinations of Brythonic, Celtic and Saxon tongues, possibly the inheritance of a people who were niether fish nor fowl, as they most certainly didn't recognise the legitimacy of either Nation State.
And here is one absolute gem of a C16th moral from a people whose very existence depended on having their wits about them at all times, and especially when on a night raid...
Keip thine lugs lang to fell and dell
And thine een sharpe aboot thinesell
Tho thine awin mau bide clappit well
Lest thine awin tonge thi sinnes suld tell
Keep your ears long to fell and dell
And your eyes sharp about yourself
Though your own mouth, keep shut well
Lest your own tongue your sins should tell
Pango.
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Just to lower the tone, I've never forgotten something a sneering colour sergeant said to us on our first night out on basic training (imagine a Glaswegian accent and a curl of the lip):
'Any c**t can be uncomfortable.'
'Any c**t can be uncomfortable.'
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