Reivers
Yesterday saw three visits from Drumlanrig St Cuthbert’s Primary School to the Hub, rounding off a series of Reivers-related events to coincide with the Hawick Reivers Festival. As part of the Reivers Festival, the Hub put on a Ballads and Storytelling Session, gave a talk in partnership with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS); and we also received visits from two primary schools who were learning about reivers for their term topics.
P3 and P4 from Drumlanrig St. Cuthbert’s got a tour of the Hub building, and they then examined a document from our Naesmyth of Posso collection that dates back almost to the time of the reivers. The document was made of vellum (animal skin) and the writing was very ornate. At the bottom hung the royal seal, showing the king on horseback in a warlike stance with his sword held high. The children then coloured in their own reiver seals, and then had a story and song session based on the famous reiver ballad “Jamie Telfer of the Fair Dodheid”. Jamie was a poor man whose ten cows were stolen from him by the Captain of Bewcastle. Running from tower to tower through the night, Jamie managed to raise a hot trod to pursue the captain, and by the end of story managed to come home richer than he had been before the sorry tale started - for in addition to his own ten kye, he had the Captain’s cows as well!
When they cam to the fair Dodhead,
They were a wellcum sight to see!
For instead of his ain ten milk-kye,
Jamie Telfer has gotten thirty and three.
Image: a P3 pupil colouring in her own reiver seal.
The royal seal on a document from the Naesmyth of Posso collection
