“...The war-song of the Harlaw has been already noticed; it is a rugged tissue of alliteration, every letter having a separate division in the remarkable string of adjectives which are connected to introduce a short exordium and grand finale. The Jorram, or boat-song, some specimens of which attracted the attention of Dr Johnson, was a variety of the same class. In this, every measure was used which could be made to time with an oar, or to mimic a wave, either in motion or sound. Dr Johnson discovered in it the proceleusmatic song of the ancients; it certainly corresponds in real usage with the poet's description:

                        “Stat margine puppis,
                Qui voce alternos nautarum temperet ictus,
                Et remis dictet sonitum pariterque relatis,
                Ad numerum plaudet resonantia cœrula tonsis.”

Alexander Macdonald excels in this description of verse. In a piece called Clanranald's Birlinn, he has summoned his utmost efforts in timing the circumstances of a voyage with suitable metres and descriptions. A happy imitation of the boat-song has been rendered familiar to the English reader by Sir Walter Scott, in the “Roderigh Vich Alpine Dhu, ho! ieroe,” of the “Lady of the Lake.””
[The Modern Scottish Minstrel; Or, The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century, vol.2, 1856]