This letter, written to Lord Burghley by Thomas Musgrave, in 1583, suggests the frustration of border officials. Evidence from the Border Papers in The National Archives (Catalogue series SP 59) shows that incidents involving reiving families occurred frequently. The Graham family mentioned here were also mythologized in the ballad Hughie the Grahame, which begins:
Gude Lord Scroope's to the hunting gane, He has ridden o'er moss and muir; And he has grippit Hughie the Graeme, For stealing o' the Bishop's mare.
'Now, gude Lord Scroope, this may not be! Here hangs a broadsword by my side; And if that thou canst conquer me, The matter it may soon be tryed.'
