1649 T. G. Plain Discov. how Enemy in North upholds Interest 4 Now the Inhabitants of barren grounds to pay such rents, what they cannot by their labours, they make up by Moss trooping.

1650 Mercurius Politicus No. 28 458 One Agustin a Dutch man, whose Trade hath been since we came into Scotland, in Mos-trooping.

1789 J. Clarke Surv. Lakes Cumberland (ed. 2) p. xviii Being writ at a time when the spirit of moss-trooping was in full vigour.

1847 Littell's Living Age 13 Mar. 501 It may probably be true, that he was as little fitted for the contentions of the bar, as for moss-trooping with his forefathers on a border foray.

1867 Galaxy 1 Jan. 91 His nocturnal moss-troopings.

1868 Quarterly Rev. Jan. 52 His joyous carouses, transported him back to times when moss-trooping was a manly occupation.

1988 D. Hay Renaissance Ess. xiv. 318 Moss-trooping and reiving, piracy, highway robbery, blackmail, murder and rapine were endemic.

1805 W. Scott Lay of Last Minstrel i. xxi. 22 A stark moss-trooping Scott was he.

1820 N. Amer. Rev. Oct. 383 He..has the good fortune, by his bravery, to rescue Eleanor from a band of moss-trooping Scots.

1870 Harper's New Monthly Mag. 40 385 He looked upon him much as a clerk in the Middle Ages may have looked upon a moss-trooping baron—a personage at once tremendous and contemptible.

1884 S. R. Gardiner Hist. Eng. I. 338 Still, the old mosstrooping spirit was not to be changed in a day.

1924 J. Buchan Three Hostages x. 147 ‘Bravo!’ he cried. ‘That's your old moss-trooping self!’

1990 Times (Nexis) 10 Mar. Son and heir of a Border chief of a moss-trooping clan, Thomas stayed loyal to Mary.