[A composite volume : containing The ballads and songs of Ayrshire ...

i
!
THE SANG
THE SPINDLE.
An' Bell is now a towmont auld,
As weel ye ken yoursel' !
As weel ye ken yoursel', gudeman
As weel ye ken yoursel'.
It's a waefu' thing this drink, gudeman !
It throws a cauldrife blicht
O'er the ingle-side of the gudeman
Wha tm-ns braid day to nicht.
Sae dinna let Heaven's ain bricht sun
Rise o'er your revelry :
But, oh ! tak' pity on yoursel'—
On our wee bairns an' me.
On our wee bairns an' me, gudeman !
On our wee bainis an' me.
Girvan, July 25, 1842.
W.
These verses possess—independently of their object— considerable
merit. They appeared in the Ayr Observer, but we know not the
author.
W^z ^ang o'
i^t ^pmtJlc.
S s
-^
< [The spindle, the only machine in olden times, with the simple reel and loom
of home manufacture. The mode of counting the hanks of yarn is embodied in
Di \ the unique " ower-come" of the following. This simple tale of ingenious indus-
5 try, may preserve the remembrance of a piece of ancient cottage furnitiu'e—cast
\
amid the lumber of other days, but hanging, like dusty pictures, on the memories
of our Scottish grand-dames.]
Auld Auntie was nae spinster bauld,
A leal-gude bodie she ;
In the bonnie howe o' a heath'17 knowe,
Aside a broomy lea,