Here you are actually standing in Scotland, but just a few feet away is another country... Today these waters, the River Liddel and the smaller Kershopeburn, form a peaceful boundary between England and Scotland. But four centuries ago these fields at Kershopefoot would have echoed to the sound of fighting, with disputes often ending in murder.

‘On active stead with lance and blade
The lights armed pricker plied his trade’

Just across was a small monument, known variously as the Tourney Stone, the Truce Stone, or Laird Jock’s Stone. It is said it was erected to mark the spot where the reiver, Wee Jock Elliot, fought and injured the Scottish Warden, Lord Bothwell. The field itself was called the Tourneyholm, a place of tournament where arguments were settled by single combat. Local Wardens met here on days of truce to sort out disputes and exchange prisoners. The English Warden and his entourage would send a rider through the water to ask for peace until the following sunrise. The Scots then sent a horseman back and both Wardens held up their hands in token of good faith. The English then advanced into Scotland.

Did you know?
Courts to try wrong-doers were held by the river with a jury of 12. Six Englishmen were chosen by the Scottish Warden and six Scotsmen were chosen by the English Warden. ‘Tratours, murderers, fugitives and betrayers’ could not be jurors. In 1563 a new penalty scale put compensation for the loss of an ox at 40 shillings; a cow was 30 shillings and sheep and pigs were six shillings. But justice could be slow. One case took six years to settle.

‘But war’s the borderers’ game
Their gain, their glory, their delight’

As well as the laws of their own countries, reivers had local laws. But these were often broken. In 1596 Kinmont Willie Armstrong, a notorious reiver, was unfairly captured not far from here on a day of truce. The English imprisoned him in Carlisle Castle, but he was rescued in a daring raid by another Scottish reiver, the bold Scott of Buccleuch. When an outraged English Queen Elizabeth 1st demanded to know how he dare enter one of her castles, Buccleuch replied: 'What is it, madam, that a man dares not do?' 'By God,' she said, 'with 10,000 such men, our brothers in Scotland could shake the firmest throne in Europe!'

‘To sleep the day, maraud the night’

The Marches
In the 16th century, the English/Scottish border was divided into six areas called Marches. This is the Scottish Middle March and it borders with the English West March. Each March had its own Warden, whose job was to keep law and order for his respective King. It meant maintaining a small army and sometimes a Warden found it so expensive he also had to take to reiving to pay for it.

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