Poetry > Ballads in the Cumberland dialect

NOTES.
191
is supplied by the bottle. He who wastes life in an
ambitious pursuit of power or distinction, and the
sordid wretch who starves amidst accumulated trea¬
sures, are alike the objects of his contempt and satire.
Even the “ whining lover,” whose happiness or misery
is produced by the smiles or the frowns of his mistress,
betrays, in his opinion, a weak, despicable under¬
standing, that hardly entitles him to a place in the
scale of thinking beings. These boon companions
of the glass are the last lingering remains of these
festive meetings, seldom departing till their roseate
faces receive the reflection of the next day’s sun.
An upshot is a meeting among a number of merry-
hearted swains and nymphs who are fond of music
and dancing. It generally takes place in a barn,
during the summer season, when there are no merry
nights to animate the lagging moments of a leisure
Note 32, p. 69.
How monie a scwore this angry neet.
The comforts that are found in a cottage often more
than counterbalance the toils and hardships attending
a life of poverty. Happy in the society of his wife
and family, blest with a healthy and vigorous consti¬
tution, industrious, temperate, and innocent, what is
there in the nature of things that can improve his
condition ?—When he becomes dissatisfied, it is when
he suffers his thoughts and imaginations to roam
among scenes of grandeur—among luxuries and ex¬
pensive pleasures—among the pompous pursuits and
amusements of the great—all of which are but so
many different modifications of splendid misery.
Note 33, P. 70.—'Twos Rob and Jock, Ac.
The convivial meeting celebrated in this ballad,
may vie, in many respects, with the most distinguished