with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

33
soldiers were not exactly acquainted with the person
of the reverend gentleman of whom they were in
search; but, from some suspicious circumstafices,
they fancied that they had got one of that cloth
and opprobrious persuasion among them in the per-
son of this stranger, " Mass John/* to extricate
himself assumed afreedom of manners, very unlike
the gloomy strictness of his sect ; and among other
convivial exhibitions, surig, (and some traditions say^
composed on the spur of the occasion) Kirk wad let
me be,^ zvith such effect, that the soldiers swore he
was a d d honest fellow, and that it was impoS'
sible he could belong to those hellish conventicles;
and so gave him his liberty.
The first stanza of this song, a little altered, is
a favorite kind of dramatic interlude acted at coun-
try weddings, in the south-west parts of the king-
dom. A young fellow is dressed up like an old
beggar; a peruke, commonly made of carded toWp
* I am a poor silly auld man,
And hirpling o'er a tree,
Zet fain, fain kiss wad I,
Gin the kirk wad let me be»
Gin a' my duds were aff
And a' hale claes on,
O I could kiss a zoung lass
As weel as can ony man."
VOL. II. »