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The History of Selkirk Common Riding
J N Newlands
It is commonly supposed that Selkirk Common Riding dates from the Battle of Flodden in 1513, and it is certainly true that it has been carried out and commemorated for nearly five centuries, but all the evidence points to it being of a much older vintage.
In 1113 King David I of Scotland raised Selkirk to the status of a Royal Burgh and referred to it even then as "mine old town". He granted much land to ensure the Burgh's survival, so these early Souters would have to ride the marches of this land for the protection of their interests. In these early years, they rode armed.
The marches of the Royal and Ancient Burgh of Selkirk, therefore were ridden for four hundred years before Flodden, but it is by the Flodden Ceremony however that Selkirk is principally known. Nowhere else has a complete crushing defeat been commemorated for so long, nowhere else has any aspect of that ill-fated incursion into English territory been so determinedly perpetuated. In medieval times, Selkirk was girded round by strong walls and was the seat of a Royal Castle. Tradition has it that eighty men went "doon the glen" setting forth to the Border to meet up with the Scottish Army.
This they did at Bunkle and Billie.
"Bunkle, Billie and Blanearn
Three castles strong as airn
Built when David was a bairn
They'll a'gang doon wi Scotland's croon
An' ilka yin shall be a cairn"
A tragic prophecy indeed.
After the battle one weary and exhausted man came back. Watchers gave the news and a silent fearful crowd awaited the lone warrior as he came through the gate in the South Port and, unspeaking, made his way to the Market Square. He was recognised as one of the Fletcher brothers. At last he stopped and in a wordless gesture which told all, he raised a blood stained English banner aloft and cast it in grief to the ground. In that gesture, now immortalised in the Casting of the Colours, Selkirk learned that her youngest and bravest had all died with their king.
"The Flo'ers o' the Forest were a' wede away"
How old the ceremony of Casting the Colours is one cannot say with certainty. It is undoubtedly very old and it is impossible to explain it away as being other than what tradition describes, the legacy nurtured by the Selkirk Crafts and handed down to successive Standard Bearers from the brave Fletcher. In the fundamentals, Selkirk Common Riding ceremonies have altered little down the years and it is the eternal sameness that makes the Common Riding so beloved by Souters. The marches are still ridden exactly as they were long ago, the colours are cast and Souters listen in deep stillness to "The Liltin". What has been added in no way dims the glory of the Common Riding but adorns it. Like the Selkirk men of 1513 we still rally round on our Common Riding morning as if James IV still lives and Flodden was tomorrow. In Selkirk on the Common Riding morning there are no spectators, young and old link arms and join together in the joyous marches "roond the toun" and "doon the Green" to the River Ettrick.
No one can be in Selkirk on the second Friday of June without acknowledging that here indeed are people who come "frae naething sma" and that well they might "haud up their heids" as they remember the heroism and glory of their colourful past. Selkirk Common Riding is not simple a spectacle; it is an experience.
The most important personality of the Common Riding as naturally the Royal Burgh Standard Bearer, but there are also the Standard Bearers of the Ancient Crafts of Hammermen, Weavers and Fleshers, and of the Colonial Society, the Merchant Company and Ex Soldiers. All of these have an equal right to buss and cast their colours. Nor must we overlook the Burleyman (the Burgh Law Men); the Attendants (Standard Bearers of the future); the Burgh Officers; the Lady Bussars; Selkirk Pipe Band; Selkirk Flute Band and Selkirk Silver Band: "all of these and a great many more" ..... all have their allotted place in a celebration of enduring beauty and power.
As the late David Mackie once said:-
"And when the sun in all its rays Illums the eastern skies
The Souter walks through Glory's gate and enters Paradise"