with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

70
O dule for the order
Sent our lads to the border
The English for anes, by guile wan the day:
The flow'rs of the forest
Wha aye shone the foremost,
The prime of the land lie cauld in the clay.*
porly, it is a kind of earnestly intreating, with a desire to gain
any one over to the purpose wanted, by artfully drawing them
to form a good opinion of the Jleecher. Fairs and public preach-
ings in the fields, at that time beginning to be common in Scot-
land, were places of public resort, at which young persons of
both sexes had occasion to meet : and as these were often at a
great distance from home, it gave the young men opportunities
of performing obliging offices of gallantry to their mistresses,
which was, no doubt, one cause of their being so well attended
They were as the balls and assemblies of the country belles and
beaux.
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* The last verse is a natural national apology for the defeat.
The expression in the first line is common in Scotland, Dule
(proh dolor !) signifies grief or sorrow, as if it were said, Alas^
for the order
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