LXXXVII.
THE BATTLE OF SHERIFF-MUIR.
Tune—“Cameronian Rant.”
[One Barclay, a dissenting clergyman in Edinburgh, wrote a rhyming dialogue between two rustics, on the battle of Sheriff-muir: Burns was in nowise pleased with the way in which the reverend rhymer handled the Highland clans, and wrote this modified and improved version.]
I.
“O cam ye here the fight to shun,
Or herd the sheep wi’ me, man?
Or were ye at the Sherra-muir,
And did the battle see, man?”
I saw the battle, sair and tough,
And reekin’ red ran mony a sheugh.
My heart, for fear, gaed sough for sough,
To hear the thuds, and see the cluds,
O’ clans frae woods, in tartan duds,
Wha glaum’d at kingdoms three, man.
II.
The red-coat lads, wi’ black cockades,
To meet them were na slaw, man;
They rush’d and push’d, and blude outgush’d,
And mony a bouk did fa’, man:
The great Argyll led on his files,
I wat they glanc’d for twenty miles:
They hough’d the clans like nine-pin kyles,
They hack’d and hash’d, while broad-swords clash’d,
And thro’ they dash’d, and hew’d, and smash’d,
’Till fey men died awa, man.
III.