Broadside ballad entitled 'Bauldy Buchanan'

Transcription

Bauldy Buchanan.

This flying seheet. can only be had from the Poet, out of his
Box, 130 Gallowgate Street, Glasgow. It is one of the finest
songs of the day.

                         AIR-Knowledge is power.

Oh, wha hasna heard tell o' blyth Bauldie Buchanan,

A hale,hearty carle,o' some sixty year's stan'nin ;

Gae search the hale kintra, frae Lanark to Lunnon,
Ye'll scarce fin' the match o' blythe Bauldie Buchanan.

For Bauldie's sae crackie, an' Bauldie's sae canty,

A frame o' threescore wi' a spirit o' twenty ;

Wi' his auld farrant tales, an' his joking an' funnin',
A rich an' rare treat is blythe Bauldie Buchanan.

Blyth Bauldy Buchanan's a wonderfu' drinker
O knowledge?for he's a great reader an' thinker ;

There's scarcely an' author frae Bentham tae Bunyan,

But has been run dry by blythe Bauldy Buchanan.

He kens a'the courses an' names o' the planets,

The secret manouvres o' courts an' o' senates ;

Can tell you the day Babel tower was begun on,
Sae deep read in beuks is blythe Bauldy Buchanan.

He can play on the bagpipe, the flute and the fiddle,
Explain ony text, or expound ony riddle;
At deep calculation, at drawing an' planin',
There's nae body equal tae blythe Bauldy Buchanan.
He kens how the negroes are black an' thick lippet,
An' what makes the Hottentot maid sae big hippet ;
How the women in Turkey sae muckle are run on,
Sae versed in sic matters is Bauldy Buchanan.

How the English like beer an' the Scotch like their whisky,
How Frenchmen are temperate, lively an' frisky;
How the Turks are sae grave, and the Greeks are sae cunin',
Can a' be explained by bly the Bauldy Buchanan.

An' mair than a' that, he can trace out the cause,

O rain an' fair weather,o' frost an' o' thaws ;

An' what keeps the earth on its orbit still runin',

Sae wonderfu' learned is blythe Bauldy Buchanan.

When round his fireside neighbours meet in the gloamin',

An' hear him describe the auld Greeks an' the Romans;

How they battled an' fought without musket or cannon,

The folks glower wi' wonder at blythe Bauldy Buchanan.

Or when he descends frae the grave tae the witty,

Or tells some queer stories, or sings some queer ditty,

Wi' his poetry, pleasantry, puzzling and punnin',

Their sides are made sair wae wi' blythe Bauldy Buchanan.

But o' a' the attractions that Bauldy possesses,

His greatest attraction's are twa bonny lasses ;

'Mang a' the fine leddys, frae Crail tae Clackmanan,
There's nane can match Bella an' Betty Buchanan.
For, O, they are sae clever, sae frank an' sae furthy,

Sae bonny, sae blooming, sae wise an' sae worthy,

They keep the hale lads in the parish a' runnin',
An' striving for Bella an' Betty Buchanan.

Come to the Box ; it is the boast and pride of millions.
Saturday, 15th March 1851.

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