In this little ballad, which has barely story enough to be so called, Dugald Quin, a Highlander, who seems to give himself out as a man in very humble circumstances, induces Lizzie Menzies, a young lady who appears to have nine maids at her command, to follow him, regardless of her father's opposition. She cannot resist his merry winking eyes. After she has cast in her lot with his, he promises her nine mills (to match the nine maids), and to make her lady of Garlogie. The old lady minutes at the end of her copy that "it was the Marquis of Huntly."
One version of 'Rob Roy,' No 225, I, 8, has a stanza like 2.
I suppose the Farie of 62, 92, to stand for a locality on the waycaorth to Boggie (Strathbogie); I cannot, however, identify the place. 'Tempeng chiss of farie,' 64, 94, 104, may be a tempting fairy treasure. 'Chis' is Gaelic for tribute, but I am at present unable, making whatever allowance for the capricious spelling of the manuscript, to suggest any satisfying explanation of this important phrase.
Sir Walter Scott makes this note: "How the devil came Dugald Gunn [so he chooses to read Quin] to be identified with the Marquis of Huntly? I never saw the song before; it has some spunk in it." Sharpe's Ballad Book, ed. 1880, p. 154.
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