“ Have mercy on a virgin young,
" I pray thee, sweet Sir John.
" Cast aff thy coats, and gay manteel,
" And smock o' Holland lawn,
" For their owre costly and owre guid,
" To rot in the sea sawn.
" Then turn thee round, I pray Sir John,
" See the leaf flee owre the tree,
" For it never befitted a book learned man,
" A naked lady to see. ”

“ How did the poor so long endure,
⁠When all things sold so high?
They labour'd hard, and prest forward
⁠By sweet frugality.
The Farmers break, and methods take
⁠Design'd the Lairds to cheat;
What cringing hounds, how vice abounds,
⁠Care not for church nor State. ”

“ No doubt the order of Friars was soon extended all over the country, and particularly at Maybole, about nine miles from Ayr, where they built a very great church connected with an establishment of the priesthood, called Carsereguel, to which it is thought Sir John belonged. It is also believed he was a covetous man, as many of his kind were, and some of them never (illegible text) ood at murder to accumulate wealth. ”