Walter Scott's Poem (Marmion)

 The Battle of Flodden 1513

From Flodden ridge,

   The Scots beheld the English host

   Leave Barmoor Wood, their evening post

   And headful watched them as they crossed

   The Till by Twizell Bridge.

High sight it is, and haughty, while

   They dive into the deep defile;

   Beneath the cavern’d cliff they fall,

   Beneath the castle’s airy wall.

By rock, by oak, by Hawthorn tree,

   Troop after troop are disappearing;

   Troop after troop their banners rearing

   Upon the eastern bank you see.

Still pouring down the rocky glen,

   Where flows the sullen Till,

   And rising from the dim-wood glen,

   Standards on standards, men on men,

In slow procession still,

   And sweeping o’er the Gothic arch,

   And pressing on in ceaseless march,

   To gain the opposing hill.

  Sir Walter Scott

   1771 - 1832