304
The forest, and the deer therein,
We commit to thy hand;
For thou shalt sure the ranger be,
If thou obey command:
And for the Buck thou stoutly brought
To us up that steep heuch,
Thy designation ever shall
Be John Scot in Bucksclengh.”
*****
In Scotland no Buckcleuch was then,
Before the buck in the cleugh was slain;
Nights-men[1] at first they did appear,
Because moon and stars to their arm they bear.
Their crest, supporters, and hunting horn,
Shows their beginning from hunting came;
Their name and stile, the book doth say,
John gained them both into one day.
Watt’s Bellanden.
We commit to thy hand;
For thou shalt sure the ranger be,
If thou obey command:
And for the Buck thou stoutly brought
To us up that steep heuch,
Thy designation ever shall
Be John Scot in Bucksclengh.”
*****
In Scotland no Buckcleuch was then,
Before the buck in the cleugh was slain;
Nights-men[1] at first they did appear,
Because moon and stars to their arm they bear.
Their crest, supporters, and hunting horn,
Shows their beginning from hunting came;
Their name and stile, the book doth say,
John gained them both into one day.
Watt’s Bellanden.
The Buccleuch arms have been altered, and now allude less pointedly to this hunting, whether real or fabulous. The family now bear Or upon a bend azure, a mullet betwixt two crescents of the field; in addition to which they formerly bore
- ↑ "Minions of the moon," as Falstaff would have said. The vocation pursued by our ancient Borderers may be justified on the authority of the most polished of the ancient nations. " For the Grecians in old time, and such barbarians as in the continent, lived neere unto the sea; or else inhabited the islands, after once they began to crosse over one to another in ships, became theeves, and went abroad under the conduct of their more puissant men, both to enrich themselves and to fetch in maintenance for the weak; and falling upon towns unfortified or scatteringly inhabited, rifled them, and made this the best meanes of their living; being a matter at that time no where in
