Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Jacobite minstrelsy

MINSTRELSY. 81
To London he press'd,
And there he profess'd,
That he behav'd best of them a', man ;
And so, without strife,
Got settled for life,
An hundred a-year to his fa', man :
And we ran, and they ran, &c.
In Borrowstounness
He resides with disgrace,
Till his neck stand in need of a thraw, man,
And then, in a tether,
He'll swing from a ladder,
And go off the stage with a pa', man :
And we ran, and they ran, &c.
Rob Roy there stood watch
On a hill, for to catch
The booty, for ought that I saw, man,
For he ne'er advanc'd,
From the place he was stanc'd,
Till no more was to do there at a', man :
And we ran, and they ran, &c.
Rob Roy. — .One of the causes of Mar's left wing being repulsed was
the part which Rob Roy acted in keeping his men together at some
distance during the battle, without allowing them to engage ; al-
though it is said they showed all the willingness imaginable. " The
conduct of this gentleman," says Moir in his manuscript, " was the
more surprising, as he had ever been remarkable for courage and
activity. When asked by one of his own officers to go and assist his
friends, he remarked, " If they cannot do it without me, they can-
not do it with me." It is more than probable, however, that his
interference would have decided the day in favour of his own party.
He continued in arms for some years afterwards, and committed
great depredations in Dumbartonshire, particularly on the Duke of
Montrose's lands, defeating some detachments of troops sent to re-
duce him. As the conduct and character of this partizan was very
remarkable about that period, the following particulars respecting
him may not be unacceptable to the reader : — >" Rob Roy was a
younger son of Lieutenant-Colonel Donald M'Gregor by a daughter