Whose milk-fed fellows, fleshy bred,
Well brown'd with sounding bows upbend;

All such as Horton Fells had fed

On Clifford's banner did attend.

More fortunate than his brave ancestor, Robert de Clifford, first lord of Skipton, who perished, as we have seen, at the fatal struggle at Bannockburn, lord Henry long survived to tell of the laurels which he had won on the field of Flodden.

Of the precise manner in which he distinguished himself in this celebrated action we have no certain knowledge; but as, like the battle of Bannockburn, that of Flodden is, in no slight degree, blended with the history and character of one of the Clifford family, and has been in the same manner misrepresented by every historian save one, I shall not hesitate to give as a counterpart to the former battlepiece, the picture of Flodden which sir Walter Scott has founded on the detail of Pinkerton *, the only account, he says, which is not full of blunder and inconsistency; and in doing this, I have, with the view of heightening the effect, mingled a few

of his metrical but equally graphical touches with the sketch which he has drawn in prose.

"On the evening," he relates, " previous to the memorable battle of Flodden, Surrey's head-quarters were at Barmoor-wood, and king James held an inaccessible position on the ridge of Floddenhills, one of the last and lowest eminences detached from the ridge of Cheviot. The Till, a deep and slow river, winded between the armies. On the morning of the 9th September, 1513, Surrey marched in a north-westerly direction, and crossed the Till, with his van and artillery at Twisel-bridge, nigh where that river joins the Tweed, his rearguard column passing about a mile higher by a ford. This movement had the double effect of placing his army between king James and his supplies from Scotland, and of striking the Scottish monarch with surprise, as he seems to have relied on the depth of the river in his front. But as the passage, both over the bridge and through the ford, was difficult and slow, it seems possible that the English might have been attacked to great advantage while struggling with natural obstacles. I know not if we are to impute James's forbearance to want of military skill, or to the romantic de

claration which Pitscottie puts in his mouth, that he was determined to have his enemies before him on a plain field,' and therefore would suffer no interruption to be given, even by artillery, to their passing the river.

"When the English army by their skilful counter-march were fairly placed between king James and his own country, the Scottish monarch resolved to fight; and, setting fire to his tents, descended from the ridge of Flodden to secure the neighbouring eminence of Brankstone, on which that village is built-moving down the hill in deep silence:

"-See! look up-on Flodden bent,
The Scottish foe has fired his tent."-
And sudden, as he spoke,

From the sharp ridges of the hill,
All downward to the banks of Till,
Was wreathed in sable smoke;
Volumed and vast, and rolling far,
The cloud enveloped Scotland's war,
As down the hill they broke;
Nor martial shout, nor minstrel tone,
Announced their march, their tread alone :
At times one warning trumpet blown,
At times a stifled hum,

Told England, from his nountain-throne,
King James did rushing come.—

Scarce could they hear, or see their foes,
Until at weapon-point they close.-
They close, in clouds of smoke and dust,
With sword-sway, and with lance's thrust;
And such a yell was there,

Of sudden and portentous birth,
As if men fought upon the earth,
And fiends in upper air;

O life and death were in the shout,
Recoil and rally, charge and rout,

And triumph and despair.

"The earls of Huntley and of Home commanded the left wing of the Scotch, and charged sir Edmund Howard with such success, as entirely to defeat his part of the English right wing. Sir Edmund Howard's banner was beaten down, and he himself escaped with difficulty to his brother's division. The admiral, however, stood firm; and Dacre advancing to his support with the reserve of cavalry, appears to have kept the victors in effectual check. Home's men, chiefly Borderers, began to pillage the baggage of both armies; and their leader is branded, by the Scottish historians, with negligence or treachery. On the other hand, Huntley, on whom they bestow many encomiums, is said by the English historians to have left the field after the first charge. Meanwhile the admiral, whose flank

VOL. I.

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The

these chiefs ought to have attacked, availed himself of their inactivity, and pushed forward against another large division of the Scottish army in his front, headed by the earls of Crawford and Montrose, both of whom were slain and their forces routed. On the left the success of the English was yet more decisive; for the Scottish right wing, consisting of undisciplined Highlanders, commanded by Lennox and Argyle, was unable to sustain the charge of sir Edward Stanley, and especially the severe execution of the Lancashire archers. king and Surrey, who commanded the respective centres of their armies, were meanwhile engaged in close and dubious conflict. James, surrounded by the flower of his kingdom, and impatient at the galling discharge of arrows, supported also by his reserve under Bothwell, charged with such fury, that the standard of Surrey was in danger. At that critical moment Stanley, who had routed the left wing of the Scottish, pursued his career of victory, and arrived on the right flank, and in the rear of James's division, which, throwing itself into a circle, disputed the battle till night came on. Surrey then drew back his forces; for the Scottish centre not having been broken, and their left wing