The Scots poets of the Middle Ages are known by the old Scots name of the Makars. contemporary with Blin Hary was Robert Henryson, about whom again little is known, apart from the fact that he is thought to have been a schoolmaster in Dunfermline in the 15th century. He wrote a number of poems that were animal fables, designed to satirise human folly and advance moral precepts. His main serious long poem was the Testament of Creseide, which was also concerned with human morality. One of his most entertaining fables was The Burgis Mous and the Uplondis Mous or the Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.

The two mice were sisters and one lived in the country and the other in the town.

The rurall mous into the wynter tyde
Had hunger, cauld, and tholit grit distres;
The uther mous, that in the burgh can byde,
Was gild brother an made ane fre burges,
Toll-fre als, but custom mair or les.
And fredome had to ga quhairever scho list
Amang the cheis in ark and meill in kist.

The town mouse seemed to live a comfortable, privileged life, sheltered from the weather and with plenty to eat. She decides to visit her country cousin and sets off, barefoot, with a walking stick, like a pilgrim. The countryside was a wild desolate place to those who lived in the town, so the mouse has a long stravaig before she finds her sister.At last the two meet and there is a loving reunion, after which the country mouse invites her sister to dine with her.

Quhen they wer lugit thus, thir sely mus
The youngest sister into her butterie glyde
And brocht furth nuttis and peis instead of spyce;
(This didn't impress the town mouse at all)
The burges mous prompit furth in pryde
An said: "Sister,is this your dayly fude ?";
"Quhy not ?"";quod scho,"Is not his meit rycht gude ?"

"Na, be my saull, I think it bot ane scorne".

It seems the town mouse is used to better things.

"This rude dyat and I can not accord,
To tender meit my stomok is ay usit".

The country mouse is upset that her hospitality, so kindly offered, has been so disdained, and by her own sister, and also points out that she has to live within her means. The upshot is that the town mouse invites her sister to come and visit her and see how much better it is to live in the town:-

Lat be this hole an cum into my place,
I sall to yow schaw be experience
My Gude Friday is better than your Pace.

Good Friday was a fast day, while Pace, that is, Easter, was a feast day, so the Town Mouse is claiming that has more and better things to eat on a day of fasting than the Country Mouse does when she is having a banquet. Of course, the Country Mouse accepts the invitation and they set of for the town. When they got there, they went into a fine house where they found a pantry stacked with food.

Baith cheis and butter upon thair skelfis hie,
And flesche and fische aneuch, baith freshe and salt
And sekkis full of grottis, meal and malt.

They ate slices of beef and mutton, plates of groats and meal, oatcakes, white bread and were having a high old time, when the door opened and in came the steward. As the poem says, "They taryit not to wesche" but tried to make a sharp exit. The town mouse dived into a hole, but the country mouse didn't know where to turn and fainted clean away. Luckily the steward didn't have time to stay and she was safe. Her sister refumed and bade her "Cum to your meit; this perill is overpast". But the poor country mouse has lost the notion.

"I may not eit, sa sair I am agast !
I had lever thir fourty dayis fast
With watter caill and to gnaw benis and peis
Than all your feist in this dreid and diseis."

Things get worse. The town mouse has just coaxed her sister back to the table :-

Quhen in come Gib Hunter our jolie cat,
And bad "God speid!" The burges up with that
And till hir hole scho went as fyre of flint,
Bawdronis the uther by the bak hes hint."

The cat begins to play with the mouse, "fra fute to fute he kest hir to and fra" causing the poor creature untold terror, till she has the chance to creep between the tapestry hanging and the wall and climb out of his reach. She then bids her sister goodbye, saying "Thy mangerie (feasting) is mingit all (is mingled) with cair (sorrow). Thy guse is gude but thy gansell (garlic sauce) sour as gall." She went home to the country to live cosily and safely on plainer fare.

Of course the point of the poem was to recommend the simple country life as more desirable than that of the town with all its luxuries and amenities. It seems to chime with modern "Green" ideas, but Henryson was more concerned about morality than the environment: he obviously presents the country mouse as a more virtuous creature than her urban sister. Nowadays people are obsessed with possessions and the things money can buy and triviliaties like being slim or being sun-tanned, and we lose sight of the essentials like peace of mind and contentment. There's something very twentieth century about that town mouse.

Henryson ends the poem with a moral about the importance of being content with what you've got. He points out that there's no such thing as a life without problems :-

Swa intermellit is adversitie
With eirdlie joy, swa that na estate is frie
Without trubill and sum vexacioun.

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