[1] Much of the Scottish poetry in Carolina's time was concerned with writing genteel verses for somewhat bawdier earlier songs, and The Laird o' Cockpen is no exception, being set to the music of "O when she cam' ben she bobbit".

Down by the dyke-side a lady did dwell, At his table head he thocht she'd look well, M’Leish's ae dochter o' Clavers-ha' Lea, A penniless lass wi' a lang pedigree.

His wig was weel pouther'd and as gude as new, His waistcoat was white, his coat it was blue; He put on a ring, a sword, and cock'd hat, And wha could refuse the laird wi' a' that?

He took the grey mare, and rade cannily, And rapp'd at the yett o' Clavers-ha' Lea;[note 3] ‘Gae tell Mistress Jean to come speedily ben, - She's wanted to speak to the laird o' Cockpen.’

Mistress Jean she was makin' the elderflower wine; ‘An' what brings the laird at sic a like time?’ She put aff her apron, and on her silk goun, Her mutch wi' red ribbons, and gaed awa' doun.

Rogers, in his The Life and Songs of the Baroness Nairne, attributes them to the novelist Susan Ferrier,[14] but she denied having written them and claimed that their author was Sir Alexander Boswell.

In the opinion of Carol McGuirk, professor of 18th-century British literature at Florida Atlantic University, these final two stanzas weaken the song's satirical sting, and "continue to be thought of as Nairne's own work and do no credit to her reputation".