The song's chorus inspired lines in Lord Byron's poem "So, we'll go no more a roving".
A beggar comes over the hills one day, and knocks on the door of a local farmer and asks for a roof for the night.
Curiously, he will not accept a bed in the barn, but wishes only to sleep by the kitchen fire.
They sleep together, and through some unmentioned premise, the daughter accuses the man of being a nobleman come dressed as a beggar to woo her.
It is sometimes said to reflect one of the adventures of King James V of Scotland, who traveled the country disguised as the Guidman of Ballengeich to learn how his subjects fared.