[247] Compare _John and Rich. Hexham_ 1138. _Ail. de bel. Stand. Flor. Vigorn. Contin._ 1138. _Hen. Hunt._, l. 8, p. 222. In the description of the battle I have principally followed Ailred. A comparison between the Priors of Hexham and the Continuator of Florence, will show the difference between the chronicler who lived in the neighbourhood of the scenes he describes, and he who, a tenant of a distant monastery, probably relied upon hearsay evidence. The battle of Northallerton was naturally a disagreeable subject for the Scottish chroniclers. Wynton, with characteristic honesty, says “the Scottis ware discomfyt and mony ... in depe lowchys drownyd was.” Fordun, Major, and Buchanan, divide the battle into two, perhaps from some confusion with the fight at Clitheroe. At the battle of Northallerton the English are routed; but in the following year the Scots, through despising their enemy, who are in great numbers, receive a check at the Standard. Boece, with a soul above such half-measures, stoutly claims a victory, ransoming the English leader, _the Duke of Gloucester_, at an enormous sum! _Ford._, l. 5, c. 42. _Maj._, l. 3, c. 11. _Buch._ l. 7. _Boece_, bk. 12, c. 17. [248] By old, and probably universal, custom, every freeman was bound to attend the “hosting across the frontier” once every year in arms. By Charlemagne’s law, all holders of benefices were bound by their tenure of military service to come, and all _Frank-allodial_ proprietors of three, four, or five _mansi_ (or _hydes_); every proprietor of an amount less than three _mansi_ combining with others, so that the lowest on the list, the proprietor of half a _mansus_, in conjunction with _five_ others (_i.e._, making up _three mansi_) equipped one of their number for the army. The equivalents of this latter class amongst the English seem to have formed the _gemeinred_ or yeomanry. A less numerous, but a better armed, and probably a more orderly body of men, would be furnished by the Imperial law than by the older custom, which was preserved in Scotland under the name of _Scotticanum servitium_, sometimes known as _forinsecum servitium_ (_Reg. Morav. Cart. Orig._ 13), the _Sluagh_ or “hosting beyond the frontier.” The muster of the Highland clan in later times, including “Native men” as well as “Duine Uasal,” answered to the old _Sluagh_. The expressions _Inware_, and _Utware_, are sometimes used, the former answering, apparently, to the Welsh “Llwyd yn Wlad,” or hosting _within_ the borders; the latter to the “Llwyd yn Orwlad,” or hosting _beyond_ the borders. It may be gathered from _Reg. Morav. Cart. Orig._ 17, that “Scottish service” was rendered on foot and without defensive armour. “Non habemus jus habendi aliquod servitium de domino Willelmo de Moravia nisi _forinsecum servitium Scotticanum_ domini regis ... et secursum ac auxilium quod nobis in defensione regni per potenciam suam _armigerorum et equorum et