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Excerpts from Rob Roy And Selected Poems *

There are many productions of the Scottish ballad poets upon the lion-like mode of wooing practised by the ancient Highlanders when they had a fancy for the person (or property) of a Lowland damsel.  One example is found in Mr.  Robert Jamieson's Popular Scottish Songs.  The achievement of Robert Oig, or Young Rob Roy, as the Lowlanders called him, was celebrated in a ballad, of which there are twenty different and various editions.  The tune is lively and wild, and we select the following words from memory:

Rob Roy is frae the Hielands come,
Down to the Lowland border;
And he has stolen that lady away,
To haud his house in order.

He set her on a milk-white steed,
Of none he stood in awe;
Until they reached the Hieland hills,
Aboon the Balmaha'! **

Saying, "Be content, be content,
Be content with me, Lady;
Where will ye find in Lennox land,
Sae braw a man as me, Lady?

"Rob Roy, he was my father called,
MacGregor was his name, Lady;
A' the country, far and near,
Have heard MacGregor's fame, Lady.

"He was a hedge about his friends,
A heckle to his foes, Lady;
If any man did him gainsay,
He felt his deadly blows, Lady.

"I am as bold, I am as bold,
I am as bold and more, Lady;
Any man that doubts my word,
May try my gude claymore, Lady.

"Then be content, be content,
Be content with me, Lady;
For now you are my wedded wife,
Until the day ye die, Lady."

* Scott, Sir Walter, Rob Roy And Selected Poems, The Book League of America, New York, undated.
* * The Balmaha was a pass on the eastern margin of Loch Lomond, and an entrance to the highlands.  "The garrison" was a fort, built around 1713 by Rob Roy's foes, to protect themselves from him and his clan.  It was located between Inversnaid and Loch Katrine.

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