Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The disastrous defeat of the Scottish army at Flodden, by leaving the country in a great measure unprotected, gave a shock to the whole border district; and following the general example, Peebles looked to the strengthening of its bastel-houses and its walls. We may likewise suppose that its castle was put in a posture of defence adequate to the means at command and the importance of the occasion. Some portions of the fortifications reared at this season of panic are still seen in good preservation on the eastern and least defensible side of the burgh ; though it must be allowed that the walls would have had a slender chance of preserving the town had the English thought fit to march against it. The adjoining cut (fig. 20) shews a portion of the town-wall as it still exists near the east port. Fig. 20.—Town-wall of Peebles. Ensuing on the battle of Flodden, during the minority of James V., and when The Flowers of the Forest were a' wede away, we have accounts of disturbances, thefts, and slaughters, aggravated beyond precedent. Douglas, Earl of Angus, who married the widow of James IV., commanded on the eastern borders, and for a time retained the custody of the young king, greatly to the popular discontent. After his accession to power, James V., with the resolute spirit of a sportsman, hunted down the vermin- like freebooters of the border. Of this famous expedition against the Scotts, Elliots, Armstrongs, and other habitual disturbersof the southern counties, the following account is given by Lindsay: The king ' maid ane convention at Edinburgh with all the lordis and barronis, to consult how he might best stanch the thieff and revis [reiving] within his realme, and to caus the commounes to lieve in peace and rest, quhilk lang tyme had beine perturbed befoir. To ...