with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

m
MUIRLAND WILLIE,
Hearken, and I will tell you how
Young Muirland Willie came to woo,
Tho' he could neither say nor do
The truth I tell to you.
But ay he crys, whatever betide,
Maggyf I'se ha'e her to be my bride,
With afalj dal, ^c.
tars gloried in seeing a well-dressed wooer, half smothered in
cloth of home manufacture.
Such were the ideas of a blythe old soul who lived at the Isle,
iu the holms of Nithsdale, when a weaver lad had stilted the
Nith, to court his daughter.— " He's weel arrayed, hear ye me,
dame; he's weel arrayed—he has twa tap coats, and a plaid
on!"
Such a dowry as Willie's bride got was a dowry of some value
in those moneyless times. Here is a fragment of* a curious
marriage portion which was bestowed on a Nithsdale bride
about a century ago.
" Twa rigs o' run rig land—twa kye, wi' sax Ewes and
" their lambs, axM stock o' Tinwald, A tumbler car*—
" single naig harrow, wi' iron fore teeth—a Plow, wi' a'
" its graithings—Twa coils o' hair tether, wi' twa widdie
" Creels, and * * * *. By and attour sixty merks for