Footnote : Robert Burns wrote this rollocking song for one of Collector John Mitchell's Excise Court dinners as he confirmed in a letter to John Leven, an Edinburgh General Supervisor, in March 1792. However John Gibson Lockhart gave a much more romantic and overwritten version of the song's composition. According to Lockhart our National Bard wrote the song whilst awaiting the arrival of fellow gauger John Lewars and a party of dragoons from Dumfries prior to the capturing of the smuggling brig Rosamond in the Solway Firth. Sword in hand, Burns, according to the tale, was one of the first to board the vessel. The Rosamond was to land Robert Burns in hot water with his Excise superiors as he purchased four carronades at the public roup of the ship and its contents. Burns sent the carronades as a gift to the French Convention to show sympathy with the cause but the carronades were subsequently seized by the authorities at Dover, England, en route for France. There was nothing illegal in Robert Burns' actions but it led to the disapproval of his government employers.