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Rhymes of Northern Bards: Being a Curious Collection of Old and New Songs and Poems, Peculiar to the Counties of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham — John Shaqi

Rhymes of Northern Bards: Being a Curious Collection of Old and New Songs and Poems, Peculiar to the Counties of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham

General

Rhymes of Northern Bards: Being a Curious Collection of Old and New Songs and Poems, Peculiar to the Counties of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham

Ballads, English -- England, Northern -- Texts; England, Northern -- Poetry

Transcriber’s Note: Period and dialect spelling, inconsistent
hyphenation, etc. are preserved as printed.




                                RHYMES
                                  OF
                           _Northern Bards_:

                            BEING A CURIOUS
                              COLLECTION
                            OF OLD AND NEW
                          _SONGS AND POEMS_,

                      Peculiar to the Counties of
                         _NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE,
                     NORTHUMBERLAND, AND DURHAM_.

                       EDITED BY JOHN BELL, JUN.

                            [Illustration]

            “NORTHUMBRIA’S SONS STAND FORTH, BY ALL CONFEST,
              THE FIRST AND FIRMEST OF FAIR FREEDOM’S TRAIN;
            EACH BRAVE NORTHUMBRIAN NURSES IN HIS BREAST
              THE SACRED SPARK, UNSULLIED BY A STAIN.”

                         Newcastle upon Tyne:
      Printed for John Bell, by M. Angus & Son, and sold by them,
                    and other Booksellers in Town.
                               MDCCCXII.




LINES _SENT TO THE EDITOR AND PRINTER_.


  Proceed, ye generous friends of Tyne,
    And prosperous be your way;
  How happy, would our sons incline
    To catch the improving ray!
  With heart and hand your friendship join,
    Bring Taste and Genius forth;
  That all may own Newcastle Town,
    Emporium of the North.




PREFACE.


  _Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see,_
  _Thinks what ne’er was, nor is, nor e’er shall be._

                                              POPE.

“Give me the writing of all the Ballads, for the people of England, and
let who will be their law-giver,” was said by a celebrated orator, in
speaking on the manners of the people:--this cheering ray, in behalf of
ballad writing, gave rise to the publication of the following pages:
for how many of these simple, yet popular effusions, have been lost
for want of a repository to give them a chance of living a day beyond
the time they were written?--As such, the _Summum Bonum_ of my labours
is to rescue from the yawning jaws of oblivion the productions of the
Bards of the Tyne; and by so doing, hand them down to future ages as
Reliques of Provincial Poetry:--But, conscious of the liability of
personal allusions in the generality of provincial poems, the words of
the poet have been kept in mind:--

  “Curs’d be the verse, how well soe’er it flow,
  Which tends to make one _worthy_ man my foe!”

Those who may have expected a matchless collection, and find it
inferior to other poetical selections, will please to think of the
following Italian proverb:--

    “CHI LAVA LA TESTA AL ASINO PERDE IL SAPONE.”

and accept the same from their

                           Obedient Servant,

                                            THE EDITOR.

    _Newcastle upon Tyne,
       August, 1812._




VERSES ON _NORTHUMBERLAND MINSTRELSY._


BY H.R.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Rhymes of Northern Bards: Being a Curious Collection of Old and New Songs and Poems, Peculiar to the Counties of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, and Durham

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