It should be remembered that during the period under discussion, the British Army, unlike the Navy, relied entirely on recruiting volunteers. OK acts for impressment were passed in 1778 and 1779 but they were repealed by 1780 and I doubt they had much impact.

The recruiting sergeant, therefore, would have been a very important person to the regiment as he had to recruit sufficient volunteers to keep the regiment up to strength.

The song, as I see it, is a brilliant evocation of the kind of patter that they would use to persuade young men to join up. If you look at TV advertising for the British Army today, you can see that they are saying much the same kind of thing event though the terminology is different.

The phrase "markets and fairs" in the first verse surely refers to the annual hiring fairs where agricultural labourers were hired for the next year. These were not unique to North East Scotland but were found all over Britain. These would be an obvious place for recruiting sergeants to target as there would be plenty young men who are looking for work for the next year and there would likely always have been some who were attracted to the army as an alternative to the usual sorts of occupation on offer especially if they were fit and healthy but, for some reason or another were have problems finding employment for the next year or had had enough of agricultural labour with its poor pay and conditions - or even, dare I say it, had a "sweetheart and a bairn!".

Is the song cynical? In some respects it is but I see it more as someone observing the recruiting sergeants at their work with wry amusement.

If you want a cynical view of the bothy system of North East Scotland, surely the Barnyards o' Delgatay is a much better example.