[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

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MAT COLVIN.
Burns says the " story is founded on fact.
A John Hunter, ancestor to a
very respectable farming family, who live in a place in the parish, I think,
of Gralston, called Barr Mill, was the luckless hero that ' had a horse and
had nae mair.' For some little youthful follies he found it necessary to
make a retreat to the West Highlands, where ' he fee'd himself to a Highland
laird ;' for that is the expression of all the oral editions of the song
I ever heard.
The present Mr Hunter, who told me the anecdote, is the
great-grandchild of our hero." The song was first printed in Herd's
Collection.
The ballad bears internal evidence of being as old as the days
of Mr Hunter's great-grandfather.
The laird coming " rap, rap, to the
yett" refers to a period when the houses or towers of the lairds were
strongly enclosed with a well-barricaded gate, or, Scottice, yett.
mm (tmin.
False Sir John a wooing came.
To a maid of beauty fair :
May Colvin was the lady's name.
Her father's only heir.
He's courted her butt, and he's courted her ben,
And he's courted her into the ha'.
Till once he got his lady's consent
To mount and ride awa'.
She's gane to her father's coffers,
Where all his money lay
And she's taken the red, and she's left the white,
And so lightly as she tripped away.
She's gane down to her father's stable
Whei*e all his steeds did stand
And she's taken the best and she's left the warst,
That was in her father's land.
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