photo #5218174

For nearly four hundred years, from the late 1200s to the early 1600s, the borderlands separating Scotland and England were essentially lawless. Frequently crossed by armies of the two warring countries, and with an agricultural base inadequate for its population, there developed within the Borders, as the area was known, a culture of raiding and robbery.The men who raided and plundered neighboring villages and farms were called reivers, a word derived from the Middle English verb meaning to rob, pillage and plunder. To protect themselves and their possessions the people in the Borders lived in fortified towers and, when possible, would bring their livestock in at night. More than once a band of reivers had their homes robbed and plundered by the very men whose homes and farms they were simultaneously robbing.One of the most notorious reivers of the late 16th and early 17th centuries was Walter Scott of Harden, commonly known as Auld Wat O’Harden. The village of Harden is just a few miles from Hawick in the Scottish Borders. From there Auld Wat raided throughout southern Scotland and northern England.According to legend, if supplies were running low, when Auld Wat sat down for supper his wife would present him with a plate with his spurs on it, rather than a meal. That was her way of telling Wat it was time for him to go on a raid to bring in more food.Auld Wat’s plated spurs are on display in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.