The old Scottish name for the bat. † [Poosie Nansie's, "The scene of the 'Jolly Beggars,' was a public house in Mauchline of the lowest possible description, to which beggars and vagrants resorted for lodging and food. It was adapted for the entertainment of such characters only, and no other sort of persons ever entered it, excepting, perhaps, such wags as Burns himself, when bent upon amusement, and desirous of seeing the lowest scenes which human nature can exhibit. "As the approach of night calls home all the creatures of animated nature to rest and enjoyment, so, in these good old times, did Saturday night, the sun-set of the week, bring to roost all the stray sons of poverty, bent upon compensating, by the festivity of one night, the contumelies, the wanderings, the hunger, cold, pain, and abstinence, of the rest. On that evening, therefore, whole fleets of mendicants might be seen thronging the roads, bound for Poosie Nansie's, to haud the splore,' and pouring in at all the 'town-ends' in Mauchline. Her oval-shaped door received them within its crater, as the bung-hole in the genie's cask, in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, received the vapour into which the fisherman had caused him to dissolve himself. Then would there be recognitions of acquaintance, and the most ceremonious shaking of hands imaginable; for they were always ceremonious, till such time as the ice of politeness was thawed by the genial warmth of a few preliminary drams; when, of course, there was a greater community of friendly feeling throughout. But not more wonders in the dissolution of ceremony did Poosie's Kilbagie achieve, than did her large pulpit-looking fire, round which they gathered, in respect of relaxing with equally potent heat the cripple limbs of the company. The miserable wretch who perished with the rheumatism, and walked double through the week, was cured in an instant, as if the demon of the disease had fled from his bones on coming within the influence of a spell. The Po-or ou-ld bli-nd man,' who had howled forth the terrible circumstances of his condition, vexing the ears of the lieges, for six long days, suddenly opened his eyes to the blessings before him, as if he had only awoke from a long sleep. The poor sailor lad,' too, who had lost an arm with Rodney, on the glorious 12th of August, 1782, seemed suddenly to forget all the effects of the engagement, and, in the twinkling of a handspike, the long deceased limb sprang from the jacket, into all its pristine health and vigour. More astonishing resurrections than even that took place. Limbs accustomed to limp wi' the spavie,' recovered their vigour and proportion. Legs grew down from trunks formerly detruncated, and arms sprang from shoulders erst apparently stumps. Immense blotches that, in week days, excited the commiseration of the charitable, in the character of plague spots upon the skin, at once disappeared, and, like the baseless fabric of a vision, left not a wreck behind.' The man 'with a brown leg and blue one,' who had had the black scurvy in Jamaica, and come home a poor helpless object,' became in a moment the soundest and liveliest man in the company; and the wretch who trembled through the week between two crutches, as if every part of his body were taking leave of the other, now shivering with the ague, and at other times agonized by the cramp, threw by his wooden In short, the transformafriends and was himself again.' tions and cures accomplished at Poosie Nansie's fire-side were miraculous and manifold. Suffice it to say that the blind saw, the deaf heard, the dumb spoke, (nay, 'ranted and sang,') the lame walked-and all drunk. In the latter department, there was not a single inefficient member. "No sooner were the window-shutters of night all fairly closed in, and every thing snug, than the festivities of the evening commenced, Tea was paraded by the females of the company, and drunk from luggies, caups and tinnies, all of Fowls and pieces of meat them vessels not easily broken. were sometimes produced from secret wallets, and bacon ham was no unusual dish; all of which were hastily prepared BEGGARS. When hailstanes drive wi' bitter skyte, In hoary cranreuch drest; In Poosie Nansie'st held the splore, by frying-for they had no delicacy of taste in cooking. To "Through the course of Sunday, it was observed that the N 2 Wi' jumping and thumping, The vera girdle rang. First, neist the fire, in auld red rags, The tither skelpin' kiss, Ilk smack still, did crack still, AIR. Tune-Soldier's Joy. I am a son of Mars, who have been in many wars, And show my cuts and scars wherever I come; This here was for a wench, and that other in a trench, [the drum. When welcoming the French at the sound of Lal de daudle, &c. "Burns here likens a lady's mouth, rather irreverently, to an 'aumos dish; and, perhaps, few readers of the poems of that immortal bard are aware of what he means by the expression. The 'aumos dish,' or 'beggar's dish,' as it was more frequently called, was a wooden vessel, half platter, half bowl, with which every mendicant was formerly provided, as a regular and proper part of his professional accoutrements. The aumos dish was a piece of furniture attached to the profession from a very early period. In the time of our Queen Mary, when the Protestants of the Netherlands first began to resist the tyranny of Philip II., the Count De Berlaimont contemptuously told the Princess of Parma that she had nothing to fear from such a race of beggars-using the French word gueux. The Protestants seized upon, and rejoiced in, the title-Les Gueux! At a great dinner, held for the purpose of expressing their sentiments, the Marquis of Utrecht, who acted as president, descended from the chair, and, re-appearing with a beggar's wallet upon his back, and a beggar's wooden cup in his hand, drank the general health in that vessel, which was immediately passed round the company, all of whom did the same. When these patriots, afterwards, by a strange enthusiasm, assumed the garb of beggars, the wooden dish was part of the properties-to use the theatrical phrase-with which they supported the character. The vessel, which thus flourished in the sixteenth century, was generally used by the Scottish mendicants and tinkers till near the close of the eighteenth, when the old honest system of mendicancy itself came to a close. The following curious account of it is from the pen of a Peebles-shire shepherd, who is old enough to remember its general use. The Beggar's dish was used by two sets of persons,the itinerant and professed beggars, and the wandering tribes of gypsies. There was no difference in the shape and size of either; but the latter class had theirs often clasped with strong hooks here and there, or perhaps bound round the middle with a neat yellow hoop. As far as I can recollect, it varied in size from a pint and a-half to two Scots pints of measure; but in my father's house at Ettrick hall, I remember one that would have holden, I think, between three and four pints, and it generally went by the appellation of the beggar's dish.' I never saw any other plates of their shape or form; they increased gradually in width from the bottom to the middle, and for about two inches more contracted hastily towards the brim, the edge of which was turned very thin, so thin that they very often had rents in several places of their upper edge, and these cracks the tinkers held together with clear or yellow tin, or wire hooks, as noticed above. The beggar's dish was used for two purposes, to receive their aumos, and to carry broth, milk, porridge, &c., out to the road side, where the men and beggars' children staid till the My 'prenticeship I past where my leader breath'd his last, [Abram ;+ When the bloody die was cast on the heights of I serv'd out my trade when the gallant game was play'd, [drum. And the Morot low was laid at the sound of the Lal de daudle, &c. I lastly was with Curtis, among the floating batt'ries, § And there I left for witness an arm and a limb; Yet let my country need me, with Elliot || to head me, I'd clatter on my stumps at the sound of a drum. Lal de daudle, &c. And now tho' I must beg with a wooden arm and leg, And many a tatter'd rag hanging over my bum, I'm as happy with my wallet, my bottle, and my callet, As when I us'd in scarlet to follow a drum. What tho' with hoary locks, I must stand the return of the wives from the farm-house, with what beverage they could collect either by entreaty or pilfery; and for carrying victuals the beggar's dish was well adapted, for, by its contracting so near the brim, it prevented from spilling what the good housewife had poured into it, and also kept the food warm and comfortable till it reached the principal horde: this case, however, was only applicable to the tinkers. The professional beggar presented himself and his wants all at once. I think I see him, as I have often done, leaning over a long pike staff, as it was called, and saying 'Gudewife, I maun hae my aumos.' 'What d'ye take?' was then asked. In a hoarse, slow tone, it was then answered, Meal, or ony thing ye like.' The meal rusky was then sought, when the beggar from below his left arm drew out his beggar dishheld it out, and into it the gudewife put some handfuls of meal; but the quantity was adjusted as the beggar stood high or low in the gudewife's esteem-as he was of good or bad report-as he was known or was a stranger in the place -or as he was known to have much or little need. He then poured it into a small sack, or meal pock, as it was called, which was slung over his right shoulder, and hung on his left side, below his left arm, and in above it thrust his dish, unless the gudewife gave him also kale or milk; this was also poured into his dish; then if there were many servants, &e., in the house at the time, the beggar generally went to the door, or went out where he could get a seat till he had eaten up his aumos; when this was done, and his pocks all equally balanced about him, he returned to the kitchen, thanked the gudewife for her kindness, wished all the family well, with peace and plenty among them; then leaning on a long white sturdy kent, well shod with iron, on the foot, and which grated among the stones aye as he set it down, slowly retired from the hospitable door.""-CHAMBERS. The battle field in front of Quebec, where General Wolfe fell in the arms of victory, 1759. [The capture of Havannah, the capital of the Island of Cuba, by the British, in 1762, is the event here alluded to. The Moro, a strong castle defending the place, having been gallantly taken by storm, the city and island surrendered. Fourteen sail of the line, and four frigates were taken or destroyed; and an immense booty, amounting to three millions sterling, fell into the captors' hands.] ing the famous siege of Gibraltar, 1782, on which occasion [The destruction of the Spanish floating batteries, durthe gallant Captain Curtis rendered the most signal service ] George Augustus Elliot, created Lord Heathfield, for his memorable defence of Gibraltar, during a siege of three years. He died in 1790. The first of my loves was a swaggering blade, But the godly old chaplain left him in the lurch, Full soon I grew sick of my sanctified sot, Sing, Lal de lal, &c. AIR. Tune.-Auld Sir Symon. Sir Wisdom's a fool when he's fou, My grannie she bought me a beuk, But what will ye hae of a fool? For drink I would venture my neck, daffin. Observ'd ye yon reverend lad Mak' faces to tickle the mob? And now my conclusion I'll tell, For faith I'm confoundedly dry; Then neist outspak a raucle carlin, AIR. Tune-O an ye were dead, gudeman. A Highland lad my love was born, The Lalland laws he held in scorn; But he still was faithfu' to his clan, My gallant braw John Highlandman. CHORUS. Sing, hey my braw John Highlandman! Was match for my John Highlandman. I am a fiddler to my trade, Sae merrily the banes we'll pyke, am, &c. |