Maxwell to throw doubt on them? Admitting Wyntoun's assertion that the earl's death was not known to his army until the next morning, is not the inference plain that, for obvious reasons, it was kept a secret by those who had witnessed it? Had it become known, its effect on the morale of the troops might easily have been disastrous. Once more, as regards the Cavers House relics—most treasured possessions of the house of Douglas—Sir Herbert's treatment of these is positively cavalier, for he dismisses them in a note. As to the pearl-embroidered gauntlets, the late Mr. James Watson, author of the History of Jedburgh Abbey, a pains-taking local antiquary who had approached the question with an open mind, had arrived at the conclusion of their almost certain authenticity, pronouncing them to be a love-gage captured from Hotspur at the lists of Newcastle. The pennon, or pencil, associated with the gloves, presents a more difficult problem. This has been dealt with by the Earl of Southesk, in a paper read before the Scottish Society of Antiquaries, since or just before the publication of Sir Herbert's volumes. Lord Southesk's conclusions are to the effect that the flag is a standard, and that it must have belonged originally to a Douglas, though more probably to one of the Angus branch than to a member of the original family. Hence it is argued that it may have come to the Douglases of Cavers in 1452, when the head of that house was appointed keeper of Hermitage Castle. In assigning the kirk of Yetholm as the place of tryst prior to Otterburn, Sir Herbert contravenes all geographical probability. The place is called by Froissart 'Zedon,' but it is long since Robert White identified this with Southdean (locally Souden), eight miles south of Jedburgh. On the next page (i. 107) Sir Herbert has Portland for Ponteland, whilst on page 52 of the same volume he speaks of the barony of Bedrule in Roxburghshire as 'in Berwickshire.' We also suspect that he is in error when he follows Bain in identifying 'Lyliot Cross ' with Lilliard's Edge, between Melrose and Jedburgh. Even at a time when the Border Line fixed in 1222 had been blurred by English aggression, Lilliard's Edge was not a likely place for the holding of March meetings. More probable is it that the identity of Lyliot Cross (like that of Campespeth, so prominent in the Leges Marchiarum) became forgotten when the place ceased to be specially resorted to.
I have preferred in this brief review to deal exclusively
