The Scottish songs - National Library of Scotland

SYMON AND JANET*
ANDREW SCOTT.
Surrounded wi' bent and wi' heather,
Where muircocks and plovers were rife,
For mony a lang towmond together,
There lived an auld man and his wife
About the affairs o' the nation
The twasome they seldom were mute ;
Bonaparte, the French, and invasion.
Did sa'ur in their wizzins like soot.
In winter, whan deep were the gutters,
And nicht's gloomy canopy spread,
Auld Symon sat luntin' his cuttie,
And lowsin' his buttons for bed
Auld Janet, his wife, out a-gazing,
To lock in the door was her care
She, seeing our signals a-blazing.
Came rinnin' in ryvin' her hair
O, Symon, the Frenchies are landit I
Gae look, man, and slip on your shoon
Our signals I see them extendit.
Like red risin' rays frae the moon.
What a plague I the French landit ! quo Symon,
And clash gaed his pipe to the wa'
Faith, then, there's be loadin' and primin'.
Quo he, if they're landit ava.
Our youngest son's in the militia.
Our eldest grandson's volunteer
* The author of this clever and lively song, which was occasioned by
the false alarm of invasion, in 1805, at this day fills the humble office of
bedlar in the parish of Bowden, Roxburghshire.