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For the 350 years leading up to
the end of the 16th century, what are now Northumberland, Cumbria, the
Scottish Borders, and Dumfries & Galloway rang to the clash of steel
and the thunder of hooves. Robbery and blackmail were everyday professions;
raiding, arson, kidnapping, murder, and extortion an accepted part of the
social system.
While the monarchs of England and Scotland
ruled the comparatively secure hearts of their kingdoms, the narrow hill
land between was dominated by the lance and the sword. The tribal leaders
from their towers, the broken men and outlaws of the mosses, the ordinary
peasants of the valleys, in their own phrase, 'shook loose the Border.'
They continued to shake it as long as it was political reality, practising
systematic robbery and destruction on each other. History has christened
them the Border Reivers. They gave blackmail and bereaved
to the English language.
The stamp of the Reivers is still to be
seen on the Border Lands - in it's architecture, culture, and people. From
the secretive fortified towns and farms to names that once struck fear
into men's hearts - Armstrongs, Grahams, Kerrs, Nixons, Robsons - the legacy
of the Reivers remains.
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