A quote from William Stenhouse in Johnson's Musical Museum: "This is another production of Burns, in allusion to [The royal family of Stuart] and the unfortunate fate of many of its adherents. The beautiful air to which his verses are adapted, consisting of one strain, was also communicated by the bard. Mr Hogg had been informed by some person, who thought this an old song, that it was written by a Captain Ogilvie, who was with King James at the battle of the Boyne, and was afterwards killed on the banks of the Rhine in 1695".
Jim McLean