Superior skill and tactics of the Scottish leader
On the first sight of the strength of the Scottish position, the English leaders had given orders for the whole host to be drawn up on foot, in three great columns or battles, having commanded the knights and men-at-arms to lay aside their spurs, and join the ranks of the infantry. In this order the army continued for three days, vainly endeavouring, by manoeuvres and bravadoes, to compel the Scottish leaders to leave their strong ground, and accept their challenge. Every night the soldiers lay upon their arms, resting on the bare rocky ground; and as they had no means of tying or picketing their horses, the cavalry were compelled to snatch a brief interval of sleep with their reins in their hand, and harness on their back, destitute of litter or forage, and without fuel to make fires for their comfort and refreshment. On the other hand, they had the mortification to be near enough to see and hear the merriment of the Scottish camp; to observe that their enemies retired nightly to their huts, after duly stationing their watches; to see the whole hill blazing with the fires, round which they were cooking their victuals; and to listen to the winding of the horns, with which the leaders called in the stragglers and pillaging parties.Although irritated and mortified with all this, the English absurdly determined to remain where they were. They had learnt from some prisoners, taken in skirmishing, that their enemies had neither bread nor wine; and to use the words of Froissart, it was the "intention of the English to holde the Scots there in manner as besieged, thinking to have famished them." But a few hours sufficed to show the folly of such a design. The third night had left the two armies as usual in sight of each other, the Scottish fires blazing, their horns resounding through the hills, and their opponents lying under arms. In the morning, the English, instead of the gleam of arms, and the waving of the pennons of an encamped army, saw nothing before them but a bare hill side. Their enemies, familiar with every part of this wild country, having found out a stronger position, had secretly decamped, and were soon discovered by the scouts in a wood called Stanhope Park, situated on a hill, at nearly the same distance from the river Wear as their first encampment.