350    THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET.



stanza gave wide-spread currency (canto v. i6). By
the name of " Belted Will," however, in whatever way
it originated, he is now popularly known, and by the
title of Lord Warden he is still traditionally designated.
Tradition tells us also, and the statement finds a place
even in the sober pages of the historian, that he main-
tained a garrison of one hundred and forty men at
Naworth; whilst stories, based upon the rough-and-
ready chastisement which he is supposed to have
meted out to the banditti who infested that wild
country, still meet with unhesitating acceptance and
undoubting belief. What dweller on the Border
refuses, for example, to give credence to that grim tale
of the summary punishment dealt out to some unlucky
wight, by reason of a peevish word from the lips of
the Lord Warden being only too literally interpreted 
"Hang him!" was the hasty ejaculation of Belted
Will, when disturbed, in the library which still bears
his name, by the tidings that a thief had been caught
in some act of plunder or spoliation, and by the natural
inquiry, how it might please my Lord to deal with
him. The man-at-arms, who brought the intelligence
and heard the response, retired perfectly satisfied that
he had received a precise and definite order; and
when, after some brief interval of time, my lord
descended from his tower, he found the unhappy
malefactor suspended either from some extemporized
gallows in the court-yard, or from a bough of some
neighbouring tree. It was a case of what was known
on the Scotch border as " Jedburgh Justice," i.e. hang-
ing the culprit first and trying him afterwards.



[BOOK Vr.