The Berwickshire has its now familiar summer look with the main news stories increasingly squeezed out by large front page pictures of Gala Queens –as in Chirnside this week-and as the summer wears on we will feast upon huge portraits the Reivers, their lasses, more attendants; then the Coldstreamer with his left and right hand men. Plus innumerable common riders, another form of highly mobile Reivers who seemed to have covered an immense amount of territory on both sides of the Border in search of glory and loot, nor necessarily in that order.
Most towns will have some festival to celebrate with pageantry and large scale consumption of the hard stuff. I suppose its great fun for the participants but visitors must be a bit puzzled by the obsession to commemorate-in the case of the Reivers, bands of mediaeval thugs and in the matter of Coldstream, celebration of a battle lost long ago.
Perhaps Hutton and Paxton should get in the act and either commemorate a genuine historical event or make one up. It is believed that Edward 1 of England camped his army in what is now the grounds of Hutton Castle (on the site of an ancient Home/Hume stronghold) on the way either to besiege Berwick or to relieve it-the town changed hands 13 times between England and Scotland in 200 years or so. We could have a pageant about the ‘Passing on the English’ (‘passing’ thought to be a corruption of an original mediaeval word with a different meaning) with suitably clad locals re-enacting a skirmish in which the invading marauders are put to flight by sturdy Hutton and Paxton men. Not too wild a notion apparently. There is some evidence to suggest that Edward and his Kingly successors only came to Hutton the once so they must have had a hot reception in 12 something and never dared to return. It could therefore be called ‘Bloody Nose Day’ or something similar, to symbolise this victory The Hutton Think Tank has suggested that all villagers wear a red plastic nose throughout the celebrations and are seeking to copyright this idea. Anyhow it could be the basis of a fun day, photos in the Berwickshire and a dramatic increase in bar takings at The Cross
