I had thought that lawin' was lawyering, but then I was listening to Heather Heywood sing some Scots ballads today and got another notion. Could lawin' be lovin' (like the Scots phrase I heard, something like 'the land I loue').

This song seems to have much more rural dialect than many of Niles's other songs and it strikes me that he might be trying to characterize the speaker-someone poor enough, or far enough from the city, that a ribbon bow and a sash seem like something special.

So anyone have ideas for 'city brung (born???) and fair with smart'?