The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

158 THE LAY OF [CANTO' V.
Where martial spirits, all on fire,
Breathed only blood and mortal ire.By mutual inroads, mutual blows,
By habit, and by nation, foes,
They met on Teviot's strand;
They met and sate them mingled down,
Without a threat, without a frown,
As brothers meet in foreign land:
The hands, the spear that lately grasp'd,
Still in the mailed gauntlet clasp'd,
Were interchanged in greeting dear;
Visors were raised, and faces shown,
And many a friend, to friend made known,
Partook of social cheer.
Some drove the jolly bowl about;
With dice and draughts some chased the day;
And some, with many a merry shout,
In riot, revelry, and rout,
Pursued the football play.1
1 The football was anciently a very favourite sport all
through Scotland, but especially upon the Borders. Sir John
Carmichael of Carmichael, Warden of the Middle Marches,
was killed in 1600 by a band of the Armstrongs, returning
from a football match. Sir Robert Carey, in his Memoirs,
mentions a great meeting, appointed by the Scotch riders to
be held at Kelso for the purpose of playing at football, but
which terminated in an incursion upon England. At present, the football is often played by the inhabitants of adjacent parishes, or of the opposite banks of a stream. The
victory is contested with the utmost fury, and very serious
accidents have sometimes taken place in the struggle.