124
NOTES.
When old John Knox, and other some,
Began to plott the baggs of Rome,
They suddenly took to their heels,
And did no more frequent these fields[1].
Began to plott the baggs of Rome,
They suddenly took to their heels,
And did no more frequent these fields[1].
The rapacity of the Highlanders in the western shires, seems to have rivalled that of the Pandoors and Cossacs of modern days. It is thus described by our author:
They durk our tennents, shame our wives,
And we're in hazard of our lives;
They plunder horse, and them they loaden
With coverings, blankets, sheets and plaiden,
With hooding gray, and worsted stuff;
They sell our tongs for locks of snuff:
They take our cultors and our soaks,
And from our doors they pull the locks:
They leave us neither shools nor spades,
And takes away our iron in laids:
They break our pleughs even when they're working:
We dare not hinder them for durking.
My lords! they so harass and wrong us,
There's scarce a pair of shoes among us:
And for blew bonnets they leave non
That they can get their clauts upon.
If any dare refuse to give them,
They durk them, strips them, and so leaves them.
They ripe for arms, but all they find
Is arms with them, leaves nought behind[2].
And we're in hazard of our lives;
They plunder horse, and them they loaden
With coverings, blankets, sheets and plaiden,
With hooding gray, and worsted stuff;
They sell our tongs for locks of snuff:
They take our cultors and our soaks,
And from our doors they pull the locks:
They leave us neither shools nor spades,
And takes away our iron in laids:
They break our pleughs even when they're working:
We dare not hinder them for durking.
My lords! they so harass and wrong us,
There's scarce a pair of shoes among us:
And for blew bonnets they leave non
That they can get their clauts upon.
If any dare refuse to give them,
They durk them, strips them, and so leaves them.
They ripe for arms, but all they find
Is arms with them, leaves nought behind[2].
Andrew Guild, author of a curious volume of Latin MS. poems, preserved in the Advocates Library, Edin-
