THRO' Winter's cold and Summer's heat,
I earn my scanty fare ;
From morn till night, along the street
I cry my earthen ware.
Then, O let pity sway your souls !
And mock not that decrepitude
Which draws me from my solitude
To cry my plates and bowls !
From thoughtless youth, I often brook
The trick and taunt of scorn,
And, though indiff'rence marks my look,
My heart with grief is torn.
Then, O let pity sway your souls !
Nor sneer contempt in passing by ;
Nor mock derisive while I cry—
“Come, buy my plates and bowls.”
The potter moulds the passive clay
To all the forms you see,
And that same Pow'r that formed you
Hath likewise fashion'd me.
Then, O let pity sway your souls !—
Though needy, poor as poor can be,
I stoop not to your charity,
But cry my plates and bowls.
This song appeared in 1806 in the Glasgow Nightingale. This was a collection of songs called the Nightingale or Songster's Magazine,—a choice collection of Scots, Irish, and English songs,—published at Glasgow by A. & J. Leslie, booksellers, 58 Gallowgate, in 1806. The 18mo. volume consisted of 224 pages, and contained 198 songs. Tannahill contributed twenty-seven of these,—being 13 per cent. or nearly one-fifth of the whole collection. Of these, six had previously appeared in either Maver's Glasgow Selector and Gleaner, or Miller's Paisley Repository.—Ed.
Note by the Author.—“When decrepitude incapacitates a brother of humanity from gaining a subsistence by any of the less dishonourable callings, and when he possesses that independency of soul which disdains living on charity, it is certainly refinement in barbarity to hurt the feelings of such a one. The above was written on seeing the boys plaguing little Johnnie the Bowlman, while some who thought themselves men were reckoning it excellent sport.”
Note by Ramsay.—“Another proof of the humane disposition of Tannahill.”
The bowlman referred to by the feeling Tannahill was Johnnie Flint, who lived in the old building No. 36 High Street, Paisley,—where Barney Keir, the sweep, resided,—and sold beat sand, and went about the streets with a one-wheeled barrow containing his stock in trade, crying plates and bowls for old rags. From his dwarfish appearance, uncouth look, wriggling walk, and difficulty of utterance, he was frequently teased by thoughtless boys imitating his cries.—Ed.
[Semple 13]