This stanza is from First Lerges, (largesse) referring to New Year's Day gifts expected from James V and from his late mother Margaret Tudor;[5][6]The thesaur and compttrollar,Thay bade me cum I wait nocht quhair,And thay suld gar I wait nocht quhay,Gif me I wat nocht quhat full fair,For lerges of this new yeirday,* * * * * *The Treasurer and ComptrollerThey call me come: I know not where,And they would do: I know not why/who,Give me I know not what, full fair,For largesse of this New Year's Day.
[7]A metrical version of the Latin history of Scotland Hector Boece was commissioned by James V or his mother Margaret Tudor.
Bellenden's version appeared in 1536, but Stewart's, which was begun in 1531, remained in manuscript until 1858, when it was published in the Rolls Series;[1] it was edited by William Barclay Turnbull from a unique manuscript which, after being in the possession of Hew Craufurd of Cloverhill, Bishop John Moore, and George I, went to Cambridge University Library.
He supplied a prologue, and there his narrator, Discretion's cousin, explains that the English destroyed all the written historical records of Scotland they could find during the Wars of Independence in the time of William Wallace.
She says that scraps of books, loose pages, and memories had been recovered after preservation at Iona Abbey and bound together to form Boece's source material;Our auld storeis befoir thir mony yeir, (thir = these)Thai war distroyit all with Inglismen,In Wallace weir as it eith to ken; (weir = war)Syne efterwart, quhen that thai wreit the storie,Auld eldaris deidis to put into memorie,Tha maid thair buikis, thair tractatis, and thair tabillis,Part by gues, and part be fenyeit fabillis;Part tha fand in ald broades of bukkis,Part in lous quarris lyand wer in nukkis, (lous quarris = loose pages)* * * * * *Ane abbay sumtyme of authoritie,In Iona yle within the occident se,And in that place thair wes thir storeis fund,Sum in lowss quarris and uther sum weill bund.