The Buxom Belle’s Refusal

(To an auld tune.)

A doited auld carl cam seekin’ to woo

A strapin’ young lass as as she’s true; 

Says he:” My fair dame I’ve a lang pedigree

An’ tae ease your bit tocher I’ll gang on my knee.”

“Awa’ wi’ your havers,” said the Handsome Miss Leith,

I’d be an auld maid, I’d dee on Inchkeith,

Aye’ suner, by faur, Than hae ye for a mate,

So jist haud awa’ yont an’ mak’ straucht for te ‘gate.’

Chorus

“Nae wizened auld buddies wha’re doon at the knees,

Wi’ thei high soundin’ airs, an’ their lang pedigree,

Need e’er gie a thocht in my house aince to dwell,

For I’ve ne’er seen the wooer I lo’e like ‘mysel.’”

The doited auld carl he gloomed an’ he sighed,

An’ some new excuse he for ever contrived,

Says he, “My young wench if ye jist had my name,

Ye’d be kept owre the yirth faur an’ wide wi’ my fame.”

But the buxom young belle wadna listen ava’

An’ telt him off-handed on her no to  ca’,

“Wi’ your West-Eny airs,an’ your  East windy breeze,

I never could thole your cuddle or squeeze.”

Chorus

The doited auld carl got doon in the mooth,

For it wisnae her looks, which were handsome and couth,

That made him persist in his wooing her sae,

Frae the break o’ the morn till the dawn o’ the day.

But he aye e’ed her tocher frae mornin’ till nicht,

An’ nae fairer scene could gi’e him sic delicht,

Yet tho’ he kept sheddin’ braw crocodile tears,

She aye wad keep dingin’ thae words in his ears, -

Chorus.

Restalrig

[The above verses suggested themselves to the writer on reading that humourous peroration of ex-Baillie Gibson, where he referred to the “virile belle, Leith, and the old paralysed suitor, Auld Reekie.” – R]

Publ. 6th Sept. 1919

(From Andrew Grant’s collection of poems from the Leith Observer 1914 -1920)