Oxford.
_The Laird of Brodie_ (Vol. viii., p. 103.).--I. H. B. mistakes, I think,
the meaning of the lines. The idea is not that the Laird was less than a
gentleman, but that he was a gentleman of mark; at least, I have never
heard any other interpretation put upon it in Scotland, where the ballad of
"We'll gang nae mair a-roving," is a great favourite. King James is the
_subject_ of the ballad. That merry monarch made many lively escapades, and
on this occasion he personated a beggarman. The damsel, to whom he
successfully paid his addresses, saw through the disguise at first; but
from the king's good acting, when he pretended to be afraid that the dongs
would "rive his meal pokes," she began to think she had been mistaken. Then
she expressed her disgust by saying, that she had thought her lover could
not be anything less than the Laird of Brodie, the highest untitled
gentleman probably in the neighbourhood: implying that she suspected he
might be peer or prince.