Thomson and Dobie's

      Lamentation.

O, you people of this country,
Come listen to our fate,
'T s of a cruel murder
Most shocking to relate ;
Accompanied with robbery,
With grief we do you tell,
Which makes us sigh now where we lie
In the condemned cell

David Dobie and John Thomson,
Our names we cannot hide,
For the murder of Margaret Paterson
In Edinburgh we were tried.
On the twelſth day of July,
Our trial did come round,
And guilty of the horrid crime,
By the jury we were found.

For my poor wife and children
I (Dobie) do deplore,
Not for our case but their disgrace,
For our's will soon be o'er.
We have received our sentence
To die upon the tree,
And our bodies to be anatomised
A warning for to be.

On the 17th of April,
Oh ! that unhappy day,
From Edinburgh to Gilmorton
'Twas straight we took our way.
When with poor Margaret Paterson
We unluckily did meet,
She took us not for murderers,
But kindly did us treat.

And in this same public house,
We with her did agree,
To take her in our carts a piece,
Her parents for to see.
As we were going to Gilmerton,
With us she came away,
But like a lamb to slaughter led,
So her we did betray.

And like unheard of monsters,
No pity for her had ;
A crime like ours was never known,
We used her so bad.
'Tis from the cart we dragged her,
Oh, most inhuman like,
And eruelly maltreated her
At a place called Gutterdike.

Our brutish ends being now fulfilled,
With horror we may say,
We left her on the ground to die,
And her goods we took away.
From drunkenness and murder,
May this a warning be,
And may all people quickly shun
Our sad fate and misery.