Broadside ballad entitled 'Cookey Darling, a Parody on Kitty Darling'

Commentary

The opening line of this ballad runs: 'I'm waiting in the airey, cookey darling'. It was published on Saturday, 15th April 1854, by the Poet's Box of 6 St Andrew's Lane, Glasgow, and cost a penny.

As well as the ballad, the sheet also includes an introduction about how 'peelers' are taking food from people's larders and blaming it on cats. 'Peelers' are policemen, the name is derived from the name of their founder, Robert Peel. At the bottom of the sheet is a flamboyant and eloquent advertisement written by the 'poet', who is probably the Poet's Box manager, Matthew Leitch. Apparently 'no sooner is a new song issued, than his Royal Yankee Press is at once put into requisition to supply the lieges with copies'.
The Poet?s Box in Glasgow operated from 1849 to 1911. Matthew Leitch was the proprietor at 6 St. Andrew Lane?s, a narrow street on the south side of Gallowgate, from 1850 to 1858. His son William Munsie Leitch worked at the same address from 1859 to 1865 and at varous addresses in London Street until 1911. Many of the broadsides published by the Glasgow Poet?s Box were dated and some carried advertisements, not just for printed items but also for shoe blacking and ?soap for lovers?! Like the other ?boxes? in Dundee and Edinburgh, the Glasgow one sold love songs, sea shanties, parodies and dialogues. It is not clear what the connection between the different Poet?s Boxes were. They almost certainly sold each other?s sheets. It is known that John Sanderson in Edinburgh often wrote to the Leitches in Glasgow for songs and that later his brother Charles obtained copies of songs from the Dundee Poet?s Box. There was also a Poet?s Box in Belfast from 1846 to 1856 at the address of the printer James Moore, and one in Paisley in the early 1850s owned by William Anderson.
Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.

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