Broadside ballads entitled 'Female Rambling Sailor', 'Dandy Husband', 'Old Mill Stream' and 'Braes o' Gleniffer'.

Transcription

Female Rambling Sailor.

Come all you people far an near,
And listen to my ditty.
At Gravesend lived a maiden fair,
Who was both young and pretty,
Her love he was press'd away,
And drowned in a foreign sea
Which caus'd this maiden for to say,
I'll be a female sailor.
This maiden she was resolved to go
Across the foaming ocean,
She was resolved to let them know,
How she can gain promotion,[
With jacket blue and trowsers white'
Just like a sailor neat and tight,
The sea it was the heart's delight
Of the rambling female sailor.
Like a sailor true she went on board,
All for to do her duty,
She was always ready at a call,
This maid the queen of beauty.
When in a calm this damsel young
Would charm the sailors with her tongue
As she walk'd the decks and sweetly sung,
The rambling female sailor.
When in the storm upon the sea,
Her mind as calm as calm could be,
She loved her occupation,
From stem to stern she'd boldly go,
She braved all dangers, feared no foe,
But soon you'll hear the overthrow
Of the rambling female sailor.
This maiden gay did a wager lay
She would go aloft with any,
And up aloft she straight did go,
Where times she had been many.
This maiden bold, oh ! sad to tell,
She missed her hold and down she fell
And calmly bid this world farewell.
Did the female sailor bold a
This maiden guy did fade away,
Is Just like a drooping willow,
Which made the sailors sigh and sea
Farewell, young faithful Willy.
When her snow-white breasts in sight came
She proved to be a female frame,
And Rebecca Young it was the name
Of the rambling female sailor.
May willows wave all round her grave,
And round it laurels planted;
May roses sweet grow at the feet
Of one who was undaunted.
May a marble stone be inscribed upon,
Near here lies one so lately gone,
A maiden fair as sun shone on-
The rambling female sailor.
So all young men and maidens around
Come listen to my story,
Her body is anchored to the ground,
On the river Thames she was known Well-
Few sailors could with her excell-
The tear let fall as the fate you tell
Of the rambling female sailor.

Dandy Husband.

Come all you married women whoever that you oe,
Likewise all you that's single and listen unto me,
I've got a dandy husband the truth I will unfold,
You'll own he is a dandy man when his history is told,

                                  CHORUS.

Young women all take my advice,
And mark what I do say,
And if you wed a dandy man,
You'll sure rue the day.

When I was twenty years of age a courting I did go,
Until a dandy barber's clerk did fill my heart with woe.
His mouth is like a turnpike gate his nose a yard and half
And if you saw his handsome less I'm sure they'd make
elaugh.

He got up one morning all by his own desire,
My leghorn bonnet and my cap he took to light the fire.
He took the tea things off the shelf for to clean off the dust
He wash'd them in the chamber pot and dried them on
his shirt.

It was last Christmas,as true as I'm a sinner,
He said he'd stop at home all for to cook the dinner,
He took the plumbs and all the fat and mix'd them in his
bat,
And on the fire I do declare the rogue he boil d he cat.

He went one day indeed all for to buy a fowl,
He bought a hare I do declare, a magpie and an owl,
He put them in the pot to boil tied with a dirty rope,'
Boil'd them with guts and feathers small and said they
were nice broth.

I thought a nice sweet pudding to dinner we should have
And as he stopt at home that day to cook it he did crave,
He put it in the pot to boil tied in a dirty sack,
And in it put his shaving box and half a pound of soap.

It's through the streets we walked arm and arm together,
It very fast began to freeze, he said it was rainy weather.
If he meets a coal cart he says it is a gig,
He cannot tell I do declare a dookie from a pig.

Is there a woman in the town can match the dandyman
He is a dirty rogue and lazy fool, it's nothing but the truth
If I had two I'd give the devil one to come and fetch them
both.
I wish my dandy husband was in the new police
And I was married to a sweep, O I would bless the day
To see' my dandy husband sent off to Botany Bay.

Old Mill Stream.

Is this the old mill stream, that ten years ago,
Was so fast in its current, so oure in its flow?
Whose musical waters would ripple and shine,
Like the glorious dash of a miniature rbine,
Can this be its bed, I remember it well,
When it sparkeled like silver through meadow and dell,
                                        Is this the old mill stream, &c.
And is this the old miller's house, peaceful abode,
Whose flower turned porch drew all eyes from the road.
Where roses and jesmines embowered the door
That never shut to the way-worn or poor.
The miller, God bless him, oft gave us a dance,
And led off the ball with his soul in glance.
                        Is this the old mill stream, &c.
The old mill is in ruins,and no welcome sound
In the mastiffs quick bark, or the wheel dashing round;
The house too is forgotton and left to decay,
And the miller long dead, all I loved passed away'
This plain place of childhood is graven in my heart
In rare paradise colours that now must depart,
The old water mill's gone, this fair vision is fled;
And I wept on its wreck as I do for the dead.
                        1st    sthe old mill stream,&c,

Braes o' Gleniffer

Keen blawst he wind o'er the braes o' Gleniffer.
The auld castle's turrents are covered wi' snew;
How changed frae the time when I met wi' my lover,
Amang the broom bushes by Stanley's green shaw
The wild flowers o' simmer were spread a' sae bonnie.
The mavis sang sweet frae the green barken tree;
But far to the camp they hae marched my dear Johnnie,
And now it is winter wi' nature and me.

Then ilk thing around us was blithesome and cheerie,
Then ilk thing around us was bonnie and braw;
Now nathing is heard but the wind whistling drearie,
And nathing is seen but the wide spreading snaw.
The trees are a' bare,and the birds mute and dowie,
They shake the cauld drift frae their wings as they flee
And chirp out their plaints seeming wae for my Jennie,
'Tis winter wi' them, and tis winter wi' me.
You cauldsleety cloud skifs alang the black mountain,
And shakes the dark firs on the steep rocky brae,
While down the deep glen brawls the snaw-flooded
mountain,
That murmured sae sweetly to my laddie and me.
Its no its loud roar, on the wint'ry winds swellin',
It's no the could blast brings the tear i' my e'e ;
For, O ! gin I saw but my bonny Scots callan,
The dark days o' winter were simmer to me

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