Courtship & marriage

  BROWN GIRL.

WHEN first to this country
I came as a stranger,
I placed my affectio s on a maid
that was
She being young and tender, her
waist small and slender,
Kind nature h s fram'd her to be
my overthrow.

On the banks of a river, where I
first behe o her,
She appeared like fair Juno, or the
Grecian Queen.
Her eyes shone like diamonds, and
her stars brightly gleaming,
And her cheeks bloom like roses or
blood upon snow.

It was her cruel parents that first
caused this variance,
Because they are rich and above
my degree ;
I'll do my endeavours my darling to
gain you,                      [family.
Although you are born of a grand

If I had all the riches in the East
or West Indies,
if I had all the liquor lies in
the Queen's store,
resign it as a pearl unto my
Brown Girl,
or there is no other c ature on
this earth I adore

And it's now lovely John don't
seem melancholy,
For my dear I'll prove constant, if
you will prove true,
There is no man breathing shall e'er
gain my favour,
On the bank of the Boyne, love,
I'll ramble with you.

Now since I have gained her, I am
contented for ever,
I'll put rings on her fingers and
gold in her ears.
And with diamonds and pearls, I
will deck my brown girl,
And in all sorts of comfort, I will
style her my dear

[NLS note: a graphic appears here - see image of page]

                    SIGHTS

            FOR A MOTHER !!

Kind friends, you must know, since I entered the marriage state,
To have a large family has been my unlucky fate :
I have eight boys and nine girls to keep,
Such sights for a mother is enough to make one wee,

Oh, dear, my feelings I'll smother,
I'll tell you sights I have seen for a mother.

My poor husband in his prime with grim Death did engage
And I was left a widow at a very tender age :
Tho' I brought up all these orphans, you don't often see
Such sights for a mother in any poor family

The first child I had by Dame Nature's rude charms,
Was born with two heads, three legs, and four arms :
I had one blind and lame, and another hump-backed.
1 had three of the boys mad, and all the girls crack'd.

An odd fancy Jane's had to black men from her birth,
Five black husbands, tho' hut twenty, she's followed to
earth :
She's going to have another, as alone she cannot sleep,
From black this time to make a change, she's going to
sweep.

I had one son a doctor, with the ladies such a dear,—
They robb'd their husbands tills, the blessed man to cheers
Strange things had been found on him when he's had the
wind to raise,
He's been nine timet in prison, through his very Strange
ways.

I'd one a teetotaller, who died through drinking water
To keep up his pride, one wed a dustman's daughter :
I had one a quack, who stopped his patient's faults,
By giving them a bellyful or arsenic 'stead of salts.

If my dear man that's dead and gone, could but rise from
the grave,
I'm sure 'twould break his heart to know how they behave
But alas, in vain I call, my wailing he does not heed,
lie's sowed down in the ground—poor me's up in the weeks