This monument commemorates the Common Riding an event in Hawick history when a band of local youths came upon a party of English raiders and 'routed them and took their colour' at Hornshole a few miles beyond the town, in 1514 the year after the battle of Flodden, when 'all were sunk in deep dejection'. A series of ride-outs take place when townsfolk visit outlying areas, reminiscent of confirming that the boundaries of the 'common land' had not been encroached on.