James McPherson's long career of robbery culminated in a reign of terror in the markets of Banff, Elgin and Forres. Apparantly under the protection of the laird of Grant, he and his band of followers would come marching in with a piper at their head. Perhaps he became too powerful for comfort for he was hanged in Banff in 1700, for bearing arms at Keith mmarket. A certain haste to get rid of him is evidenced by the period of only eight days which elapsed between sentence and execution, and there is a traidition that a reprieve failed to arrive in time since the town clock and thus the hour of execution was put forward. McPherson is said to have composed the farewell 'rant' himself, delivered it from the gallows, then broken his fiddle. An instrument that purports to be his has been preserved at the Clan McPherson Museum, Newtonmore, Inverness-shire. This version of the ballad, which Thomas Carlyle found 'wild and stormful;, and dwelling 'in ear and mind with strange tenacity' was sung by James McBeath (1894-1971), who can be heard on Wild Rover No More, (Topic 12T73, 1967). His performance concludes with two of the verses from Robert Burn's reworking of the traditional text.