[Pg i]

THE

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 Songswas published in a collective form, and that volume having been for sometime out of print, renders almost superfluous any apology in presentingthe following collection to the public. During the last few years, sogreat has been the progress of education amongst the humbler classes ofsociety, that many of those eccentricities so often seized upon by ourLocal Poets as subjects of humourous satire, are fast disappearing, andere many more years shall have elapsed, the Songs of our Local Bardswill be the only memorials of the peculiar characteristics of thisancient border town.

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

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

CONTENTS.