History
the tradition of common riding dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries, during the continual land border wars both with England and against other clans. It was a tribal custom to plunder and thieve cattle, known as reiving (the ancient Celtic word for robbing), and commonplace amongst the major Borders families. In these lawless and battle-strewn times, it became the practise of the day for the local lord to appoint a leading townsperson, who would then ride the clan's boundaries, or "marches", to protect their common lands and prevent encroachment by neighbouring landlords and their peoples.
Long after they ceased to be essential, the ridings continued in commemoration of local legend, history and tradition.
Read more about this topic: Common Riding
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“No one is ahead of his time, it is only that the particular variety of creating his time is the one that his contemporaries who are also creating their own time refuse to accept.... For a very long time everybody refuses and then almost without a pause almost everybody accepts. In the history of the refused in the arts and literature the rapidity of the change is always startling.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“History takes time.... History makes memory.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)