Robert Aytoun of the first Scots to write in standard English. His major work was "Diophantus and Charidora". "Inconstancy Upbraided" is perhaps the best of his short poems. He is credited with a little poem, "Old Long Syne", which probably suggested Robert Burns's famous "Auld Lang Syne". He is also the author of a ballad called "Bothwell" about the battle fought by James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell with the border reiver, John Elliot of Park, also known as Little Jock Elliot or Little Jock of the Park. The ballad recounts how Bothwell, in attempting to arrest Little Jock Elliot, suffers life-threatening
Auld Lang Syne dance measure. (See the note in the William Shield article on this subject.) In 1855, different words were written for the Auld Lang Syne tune by Albert Laighton and titled, "Song of the Old Folks." This song was included in the tunebook, "Father Kemp's Old Folks Concert Tunes" published in Boston, Massachusetts in 1860. For many years it was the tradition of the Stoughton Musical Society to sing this version in memory of those who had died that year. Songwriter George M. Cohan quotes the first line of the "Auld Lang Syne" melody in the second to last line of