The buttons that were upon his sleeve
Were o' the gowd sae guid, &c.
This is mercery of the eighteenth, and no earlier century. Both Gilderoy and Gil Morrice are decked out in a similar fashion; and we may fairly surmise that it was no man's mind which revelled so luxuriously in the description of these three specimens of masculine beauty, or which invested them in such elegant attire. Johnie kills the seven foresters, but receives a deadly hurt. He then speaks in the following strain:
'O is there a bird in a' this bush
Would sing as I would say,
Go home and tell my auld mother
That I hae won the day?
'Is there ever a bird in a' this bush
Would sing as I would say,
Go home and tell my ain true love