THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLII, Issue 12823, 15 April 1916, Page 2

THE BATTLE OF FLODDEN.

To ih'.' F-diror. - j Sir.—Th- artiele on Xi"-' VWlnnci'* iirav,. in your paper sonic week:' ago j Ij-i been <-opi<.fi into our local nevisip.iper Lore. --The Southern Reporter," isit tli- misstatements regarding Selkirk air -o glaring to a native like niy_ ,-lr. that the worst of them must be. pointed out to your readers. . The writer of the article deals.with the Flodden of the poets and hot with the Floddeu of reality or of history. In the first place, there is no connection between our. Common-TRiding and Fladdenf We held our lands on both.sides of the river Ettrick,> before.; that battle' was fought, as the Burgh.; records 1 ; show. ' That ownership:"was \ confirmed' in 1535; but it cannot, be shown .that any additional '. lands were got after.the.battle, the only/change being, that in-1536 .'the .King"- .wrote a letter- granting . Selkirk folks "liberty-: to plough. 1000 acres of their'existing commons: -That was only anVraltera. tion ih the conditions of Crown.-tenure; the preservation of game, especially red deer, being all-important in .'the eyes of the kings of those days; tillage being strictly, forbidden where there was either forest or good pasture

ground. The statement that Selkirk received lands for the bravery of its citizens at Flodden is not the case. King James V. never says a word anywhere as to the bravery or valor. of Selkirk men at Flodden. A phrase, in common. use .by the Crown, 'about- the Flodden period was "good - , true, and thankful service done ami to be done," and about a hundred years" ago people who knew only of its" : use iii a letter to Selkirk in 1536 jumped to the conclusion that the -'iloyal. reference must refer to Flodden. '.'. Wd now know, however, that'it-was a very'comnion phrase of the" period, both before and after-the battle.i-.dn,>.a- letter, to. the .Master, of Works wTio" superintended the erection of Holyrood Palace it is "good and. thankful service "done and t" he done,':' while "Sir -Walter Scott of llraiixhclur it glide and thankful service done to his hiencss." « The Scots Parliament at various times passed■ a measure that all mates between'l6 .and 60 Were liable for mili.. tary service, and it was under this law that, the Flodden campaign was undertaken. James V. was only an infant of 18 months when Flodden was fought in 1513, and the p bra so as'applied by him to. Selkirk in 1530 only meant that the burghers wvrc liable to military service, had been called up in the past, and would be called again if needed. No; if Selkirk had done anything more than other borderers at Flodden it would have found a place in the Charter of 1535 which creates Selkirk a Royal Burgh, and where the words'"valor," ''bravery," and "Flodden" are conspicuous by their absence.

We have- mention by various reliable authorities that "a few," "not many camo back," etc., from the battle, and tho' "sole survivor" is fathered by the least reliable, of* the historians, one Hodge: but about 30 years ago this solitary lone one took tho fancy of the poets, and like Topsy in '•Uncle Tom's Cabin," that version has "growed" at an amazing and amusing rate ever since. The writer of. the article do J scribes the arrival of the lone one in Selkirk, and gives a most minute account of his proceedings, but the whole thing is imagination, like the ''hundreds'' who ride the marches and the crowds of old who sang the "Flowers' of the Forest" two.hundred years before the song was written! ■ * / Your _ imaginative correspondent might with advantage read a very sad affair narrated in the. 'sth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, ami which is illustrative of the dangers and risks attendant, on a departure from the truth,- but 1 sincerely trust that the tragic.. outcome there related in vei-se •five has had no similar sequel now, and that there has been no abrupt termination to the activities of the author of the article—a former townsman and very capable journalist—in the beautiful land of his adoption in the Southern Hemisphere.—l am, etc., THOS. H. STOODAKT. Scott's Place, Selkirk. 15th February, 1916.