[340] See the Paston Letters, _passim_; and also the account given in _Hist. MSS. Com._, Cd. 5567 (Report on the MSS. of Lord Middleton), 142?-145, of the marvellous doings of Sir Gylles Strangways in Dorsetshire as late as 1539; pp. 115?-117 contain a similar case of private warfare from the year 1477.
[341] _Northumberland County History_, _e.g._ Amble (vol. v.), Acklington (_ibid._), High Buston (_ibid._), Birling (_ibid._); vol. viii. p. 230, figures as to eight manors in Tynmouthshire. At Birling out of ten names which appear in the surveys of 1567, eight reappear in 1616; at Acklington, out of eighteen names, nine reappear; at High Buston, out of four names, four reappear in 1616 and two in 1702. But in parts of the county there were rapid changes at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth centuries; see below, pp. 257-258 and 260.
[342] _Northumberland County History_, vol. i. p. 350: "In the ancient tyme the fermor of the demaines had the charge of the tenants of the said lordship as bailiff, with the fee of £3, 0s. 5d. by year. Then was the town of Tughall planted with xi husbandmen well horsed and in good order, viii cottagers, iiii cotterells, one common smith for the relief and better aid of the said tenants and bailiff, being in number 23 householders, besides the demains, which are nowe by suche as nothing regard his lordship's service nor the commonwealthe brought to 8 farmers only, to the great decay of his lordship's service and discommodity of the said commonwealth."
[343] See _e.g._ the ballad of "Kinmont Willie," turning on an incident which occurred in 1596.
[344] _Cal. S. P. D. James I._, vol. cxxxii., July 27, 1622. Letter to the Bishop of Durham to confer with the judges of Assize for the Northern Counties touching tenant-right or customary estate of inheritance claimed in those parts, ordering them to abide strictly by the King's Proclamation against tenant-right, or the holding of lands by border service, to countenance no claim founded thereupon, and to acquaint the tenants of his Majesty's pleasure therein, giving them no hope to the contrary. Apparently the instructions were not carried out, as in 1642 the Long Parliament was discussing the subject of the border tenures (Rushworth _Collections_, Pt. III., vol. ii. p. 86).