Billington issued two sets of "glees selected from the Scotch songs" in the late 1780s, to satisfy two contemporary enthusiasms: that for mixed sex social music, and that for all things North-British. The current arrangement comes from the second set.

These glees were selected from a repertoire of well-known Scottish songs that had been anthologised in the previous seventy years. Verses that are not underlaid were not included by Billington, and have been imported from external sources.

Lyrics: Anon

Ye gales that gently wave the sea,
And please the canny boatman,
Bear me from hence, or bring to me
My brave, my bonny Scotsman.
In holy bands we join'd our hands,
Yet may not this discover
While parents rate a large estate
Before a faithful lover.

But I would choose, in highland glens,
To herd the kid and goat, man;
E'er I could for such little ends
Refuse my bonny Scotsman;
Woe worth man who first began
The base ungenerous fashion,
From greedy views love's art to use
Whilst stranger to its passion.

From foreign fields my lovely youth
Hast to thy longing lassie,
Who pants to kiss thy balmy mouth,
And in her bosom press thee.
Love gives the word, then haste on board;
Fair winds and heedy boatman
Waft o'er, waft o'er from yonder shore,
My brave, my bonny Scotsman.