with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

37
And Madge that was buckled to Steenie,
And coft him [grey] breeks to his arse,
' Wha after was' hangit for steahng,
Great mercy it happened na warse :
And there will be gleed Geordie Janners,
And Kirsh wi' the lily-white leg,
Wha ' gade' to the south for manners,
*
Fy let us all, S^c,
And there will be Judan Maclawrie,
And blinkin daft Barbra ' Macleg.'
Wi' flae-lugged, sharny-fac'd Lawrie,
And shangy-mou'd halucket Meg.
* The line omitted describes in a humorous but most gross
manner a misfortune^ the consequence of fashionable schooling,
that happened to poor " Kirsh wi' the lily-white leg." The con-
duct of this polished lady is a well-timed satire on the prevalence
of Southern refinement over " old use and wont." The modern
way of educating country girls is seldom attended with more
delicate effects. Pushed into the effeminate and seductive
scenes of a ladies' boarding-school, their rustic uncouthness is
tinged with poUter dress and politer language. They are called
home by their parents ere the loose chaff of vulgarity be winnowed
from them, and are but like a statue half relieved from
the quarry block. They are a kind of awkward, mulish non-
descript. Their half-formed notions of refinement unfit them
for the useful homely drudgeiy of a rustic life, and in their
clumsy