Flodden Hill
the most northeasterly eminence of the Cheviots. It is in Northumberland, near the Scottish border. It is now a sheep run. It is noted in history as the scene of the battle of Flodden, in which the Scots received a notable defeat at the hands of the English. King James IV, grandfather of Mary Queen of Scots, and the Earls of Huntley and Home assembled a large army at Edinburgh and marched southward to meet the English. The battle was fought September 9, 1513. A popular account of the Scottish forces, and of the bloody battle in which the Scots showed no lack of courage, may be read in Marmion. King, noble, and peasant fell before the English archers. When night came at last on Flodden Field, 10,000 Scots lay dead upon the hillside. It was the saddest day ever witnessed by Scotland. Seemingly not a home but mourned its dead. The pathetic side is well put by Jane Elliott in her Lament for Flodden Field:
The English, for ance, by guile wan the day;
The Flowers of the Forest, that fought aye the foremost,
The prime of our land, are cauld in the clay.
Women and bairns are heartless and wae;
Sighing and moaning on ilka green loaming--
The Flowers of the Forest are weded away.