This site click has some history on this song—don't know how accurate the history is, but it made interesting reading... supposedly the last verse was in a version by Robert Burns. I don't, however, see anything resembling "charion reiver" in these lyrics--??

Lin

Hugh the Graeme
(version by the Corries)

Our lords ha'e to the hunting gane,
A-hunting o' the fallow deer,
And they hae gripped Hughie Graham,
For stealing o' the bishop's mare.

"Well lowse my right hand free", he said
And put my brand intae the same,
He's ne'er in Carlisle toon the day,
Daur tell the tale tae Hughie Graham,

They've ta'en him tae the gallows hill,
And he looke`d up at the gallows tree,
Yet ne'er did colour leave his cheek,
Nor did he even blink his e'e.

And ye may gi'e my brother James,
My sword that's bent in the middle clear,
And bid him come at twelve o'clock,
To see me pay the bishop's mare.

And ye may gi'e to my brother John,
My sword that's bent in the middle broon,
And bid him come at two o'clock,
To see his brother Hugh cut down.

And ye may tell my kith and kin,
I never did disgrace their blood,
And if they meet the bishop's cloak,
To mak' it shorter by the hood.

In Burns' version of the song Stirling is the scene of the excecution. According to this version, it was for the Bishops honour that Hugh had to die. The ballad ends with Hugh's last words...

Remember me to Maggy my wife
The niest time ye gang o'er the moor
Tell her she staw the Bishop's mare
Tell her she was the Bishop's whore
And ye may tell my kith and kin
I never did disgrace their blood
And when they meet the Bishop's cloak
To mak' it shorter by the hood

Historical notes by Robert Murray, copyright 2001