NEWCASTLE SONG BOOK;

OR,

TYNE-SIDE

BEING A COLLECTION OF

COMIC AND SATIRICAL SONGS,

DESCRIPTIVE OF ECCENTRIC CHARACTERS,

AND THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF A PORTION OF THE

LABOURING POPULATION OF NEWCASTLE AND THE

NEIGHBOURHOOD.

CHIEFLY IN THE NEWCASTLE DIALECT.

Newcastle upon Tyne:

PRINTED AND SOLD BY W. & T. FORDYCE,

No. 15, GREY STREET.

1842.

[Pg iii]

A period of sixteen years having elapsed since an edition of Local Songs was published in a collective form, and that volume having been for some time out of print, renders almost superfluous any apology in presenting the following collection to the public. During the last few years, so great has been the progress of education amongst the humbler classes of society, that many of those eccentricities so often seized upon by our Local Poets as subjects of humourous satire, are fast disappearing, and ere many more years shall have elapsed, the Songs of our Local Bards will be the only memorials of the peculiar characteristics of this ancient border town.

Should an occasional coarseness of language meet the eye, let not the fastidious reader forget, that such were the modes of expression used by the parties described, and that elegance of language would be as much out of place as are the polished classical sentences of Shenstone's rustics, so often and so justly a theme of censure.

The Publishers beg to tender their best thanks to the several respectable individuals who have so kindly favoured them with the many original pieces which appear in this volume; and regret that the limited space for an address prevents a more personal allusion, than referring [Pg v]the reader to their names in the table of contents.

CONTENTS.

[Pg 5]

THE

TYNE SONGSTER.

THE JENNY HOOLET;

Or, Lizzie Mudie's Ghost.

BILLY OLIVER'S RAMBLE

Between Benwell and Newcastle.

X Y Z AT NEWCASTLE RACES, 1814;

Or, Pitmen's Luck.

NEWCASTLE FAIR;

Or, The Pitman drinking Jackey.

THE PITMAN'S REVENGE

Against Buonaparte.

THE PITMAN'S SKELLYSCOPE.

[1] A term for the Safety Lamp.

BOB CRANKY'S ACCOUNT

Of the Ascent of Mr. Sadler's Balloon, from Newcastle, Sept. 1, 1815.