Hallowed ground

April 7, 2023--Flodden Monument

There is a monument there, on Piper's Hill at Flodden Field.  As far as monuments go, it looks like many others commemorating this or that battle; here a turning point; there a decisive victory.  The landscape of Britain is littered with such monuments, too many to name.  And so it goes.  For every victor, there is a vanquished...its corollary.  

"Woe to the land, sedition, wreck and ruin," to borrow from The ghost that danced at Jethart in Scottish fairy and folk tales by Sir George Douglas, 1901.  Sir Douglas recounts the story of ghostly apparitions that are said to have presaged the death of Scotland's Alexander III (September 4, 1241-March 19 1286), in an earlier time back when the tree of Scotland's nobility was still green.  

 

Despite the pleadings of his retinue about traveling in a storm at night, the story has it, Alexander III died in a fall from his mount.  With all his children having predeceased him, Scotland would descend into an interregnum six year period that was ostensibly governed by the Guardians of Scotland.  But it was King Edward I of England who called the shots.

April 7, 2023--Branxton bog; Scots coming downhill

John Balliol (derisively called Toom Tabard, meaning "Empty Coat") was inaugurated on November 30, 1292.  He was then routinely humiliated as if he were a vassal by Edward I.  Eventually, Scottish nobility deposed him and chose a Council of 12 to govern Scotland.  It was this council who originally signed the "Auld Alliance" with France.  In retaliation, Edward I invaded Scotland.  And so, the wars began anew...centuries more of war.

April 7, 2023--the bog were ten thousand Scots died

The Auld Alliance, of course, is what got James IV involved in an invasion of England in 1513...his excuse at any rate.  For more see: https://whitleyworldtravel.blogspot.com/2023/12/ye-olde-diversionary-amorous-attentions.html

Still, in its shear magnitude, the Flodden Field memorial is in a class all its own.  It marks the end of a kingdom; the end of the medieval age.  September 9, 1513, was a fell day indeed. Ultimately, the memorial at Branxton Moor (or, following Sir Walter Scot, Flodden Field) marks the final chapters of Scotland as an independent sovereign nation.  After Flodden Field, it was a dead man walking so to speak.

April 7, 2023--at Flodden it was difficult enough with drainage

The monument is simple, yet poignant.  It memorializes the dead of both nations.  But really, mostly Scotland's.  In the form of a tapered tall Celtic Cross, it occupies an elevated position on the battlefield, standing on the edge of hallowed ground purchased by the lives of many thousands of Scots who were slaughtered at Branxton Moor literally in as little as three or four hours.  [In terms of troop numbers, Flodden Field would be the largest pitched battle ever fought between the Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England.]

April 7, 2023--Flodden mud

Executed in polished gray Aberdeen granite, it is highly visible above the landscape.  With raised roll-molded edges, it stands upon a tapered base of roughly dressed stone within a square enclosure marked by boulder posts on the corners and centers of each side.  

Set into the north side is a bronze plaque with raised sans-serif letters reading:  Battle of Flodden 1513.  To the brave of both nations.  Erected 1910.  

April 7, 2023--Flodden Field monument

First proposed by the Berwickshire Naturalists Club in 1907, it was argued that it was time to erect a commemorative memorial, and show that the old enmities no longer mattered.  (Although the modern day Scottish National Party may have a thing or two to say about that.)  

Whatever was to be erected, must be the work of both English and Scots.  A public subscription was started, and eventually £350 was raised (with a large contribution from the Duke of Norfolk whose ancestor was the Earl of Surrey, the victor of the battle).  

April 7, 2023--St. Paul's served as temporary battlefield morgue

With a thousand people present, the memorial was unveiled on September 27, 1910 by Sir George Douglas of Kelso, the same who authored Scottish fairy and folk tales.  

The Battle of Flodden Field was a devastating defeat of Scotland.  It resulted in the death of its king, and horrible carnage done to its nobility, to say nothing of blood shed by commoners.  Not less than 10,000 gallant, but dead, Scotsmen.  Some put the numbers at 14,000.  Seldom do monuments have such reach.  The end of an age.

 

April 7, 2023--Branxton Village

[Note:  As for Sir George Douglas, he never married.  Following a successful career publishing books and histories, and as Lecturer in Literature at University of Glasgow, in 1935 when he died, the Douglas estate at Springwood Park passed as an inheritance to his great-nephew who then succeeded in frittering it away--gambling, horse and car racing, yachts.  He never resided at the estate, and the house fell into disrepair.  The contents of Springwood were put up for auction in 1947 to cover his debts, and eventually the estate was divided up and sold, with the house demolished in 1954.] 

April 7, 2023--Nun's Walk at Coldstream; recovered bodies of soldiers at Flodden Field

 

 

 

 

 

A Home, A Home, A Home

April 7, 2023--vista from Hume Castle

It is perhaps a matter of perspective, but the vistas in The Borders are truly incredible.  And from heights like Hume Castle, they might even be just short of spectacular. 

April 7, 2023--the Eildon Hills from Hume Castle

First off, the Eildon Hills are a dominating feature of the landscape in The Borders, much in the same way that The Paps of Jura dominate the view in Argyle's Inner Hebrides islands. There's no escaping them, as it were.  For orienteering, they can't be beat. 

March 23, 2017--The Paps of Jura from Port Askaig

On Easter Friday, we pulled up stakes at Kingsknowes, Galashiels and aimed east, with the need to conserve charge in the back of our minds in the all-electric Peugeot we were assigned (without the ability to charge it).  Our destination that morning was actually Flodden Field, which we wanted to take in before setting up stakes over Easter at the Ford Village B&B later that evening.

April 7, 2023--path to Hume Castle

But en route (within reason), it was certainly an unstructured carpe diem affair.  Anything was game if we could reach it without too much additional range expended.  Which brings us to Hume Castle. 

April 7, 2023--the folly

Trundling into the Peugeot following our stop at the Greenknowe Tower lay by, we hesitated.  Hume Castle was three miles south of Greenlaw.  So...six miles round trip.  Should we expend the extra mileage and see what Hume Castle was about?  After all, we still had to make it back to Galashiels on Easter Monday.  In the end, we decided to chance the six miles.  

Like the Eildon Hills, Hume Castle is a prominent feature in the landscape.  In fact, we had viewed it on the horizon inbound from the windows of the Berwick-Galashiels bus (Bus 60-Bus 62X) to Innerleithen where we had scheduled a half day walk to Traquair House. 

April 3, 2023--Traquair Arms

Here, let me put in a plug for accommodations at Traquair Arms, a 200-year old coach house that is still operating.  We booked a single overnight at Traquair Arms, and planned to board the bus back to Galashiels to pick up the infamous rental the next morning.  Had we only known when we began to layout our itinerary, we certainly would have booked two nights and found things to do in Innerleithen--it's not like there's a shortage of sites to see nearby.  

The Traquair Arms proprietors were gracious and welcoming.  We did book dinner that evening at the hotel, and of course breakfast the following morning.  But as for the dinner, according to Darla their cullen skink was the best she has had in Scotland, and that is saying something.  

While the name might be a bit put-offish, Cullen skink is a smoked haddock dish, a soup or rather a stew with potatoes and onions.  It is named after Cullen, a town in Moray in the northeast of Scotland.  Skink is borrowed from the Dutch.  In Scot, it means soup.

In any case, we were uncertain on the trade off of what we might see at Hume Castle given the profligacy of expending six miles of what was a very limited range.  We needed not be.  It soon became apparent that the view alone would be remarkable.  

Hume Castle, in its existing state, was rebuilt as a "folly" by Sir Hugh Hume, the third Earl of Marchmont in 1789...so not exactly old.  The rebuilt castle ramparts are crenulated, but these are non-functional, almost a burlesque exaggeration of former defenses.  

April 7, 2023--a castle foundation (c. 1225 AD)

That said, in evidence within the folly itself is an earlier curtain wall or perhaps the central tower that dates back to the foundation of the castle in or about 1225 AD.  

The lands of the Hume clan, though, are slightly older.  They were established in 1214 as dowry of Ada, daughter of Patrick, Earl of Dunbar who took William de Courtney, a Norman, as husband.  Unlucky in love, she was widowed in 1217 after three years of marriage.  She then took Theobald de Lascelles (also Norman) in marriage, and he too died in 1225.  We must leave stories of a "black widow" to others.

April 7, 2023

Third time's a charm they say.  In 1225, she married her second cousin William, son of Patrick of Greenlaw.  This William assumed the Hume surname from the dowry lands of his wife Ada.  It is through him that the Hume clan, Wardens of the Eastern Marches, descends.  

It is generally assumed that it was he who laid the first stone foundations of Hume Castle.  Built upon a natural outcrop of rock, Hume Castle was nearly impregnable ...prior to the advent of artillery.  Gunpowder changed things.

The castle had a rectangular plan and a central courtyard, which is said to be unusual for southern Scotland.  

For its part, Hume Castle has had quite a fabled military record, repeatedly swapping hands between Scottish and English (and between Scottish and Scottish) over the subsequent generations.  If anything, it indicates the vast power that the Hume family held in Berwickshire.

Also true is that everything changed with the Battle of Flodden.  On September 9, 1513, Alexander, 3rd Lord Hume, led his Scottish horsemen successfully against the right wing of the English army under Edmund Howard and defeated it...but to no avail.  At the end of the day, Scotland was lost at Flodden Field, along with King James IV and most of Scotland's nobility.

April 7, 2023--the cursed well

Neither would Alexander Hume long survive.  He went into rebellion a year later after refusing to accept Regent Albany (John Stewart)...and for valid reasons.  Hume Castle was lost.  But almost immediately after, Lord Hume retook Hume Castle (August 25, 1515).  He then set about reducing it and razed its walls himself.  Then, to be sure he would not have to trouble with it again, he eternally damned its well forevermore.

Treacherously, and on his back foot, Albany offered a pardon and arranged a meeting at Edinburgh (Holyroodhouse).  He then had Hume and his brother William arrested...their heads were displayed on the gables of Edinburgh Tollbooth.  Yet one more reason for the saying:  "You can never trust a Stewart."  (After so many examples of their treachery, one must wonder why the Scots continued to fall for it.)

April 7, 2023--built on native rock

Ultimately in 1651, the castle was demolished by parliamentarian (Roundhead) artillery under orders of Oliver Cromwell who sought to eliminate Scottish strong points in The Borders which might challenge his parliamentary forces.  It was this ruin which Sir Hugh Hume had fashioned into a folly in 1789.

April 7, 2023--village of Hume

I should mention that the village, or perhaps more accurately hamlet, of Hume is a tiny affair.  We did not see a pub or tearoom open.  So after our tour of the castle works, we saddled up in the Peugeot and aimed for Flodden Field, feeling the better off for having made the six mile trade.

April 7, 2023--the black Peugeot barely visible

In 2005, after 100 years in care of the state, Hume Castle was returned to the Hume clan having been acquired by the Hume Castle Preservation Trust.  Hume Castle is the spiritual and familial home of the Humes.  The clan slogan is: "A Home, a Home, a Home".   Their clan motto is more poignant: "True to the End".  Aye, they were that.