[[Listen]]
Lyrics:
From the famous Peak of Darby,
and the Devil's A—that's hard by;
where we yearly make our musters;
There the Gypsies throng in clusters.
Be not frighted with our fashion,
though we seem a tatter'd Nation;
We account our Raggs our Riches,
so our tricks exceed our stitches:
Give us Bacon, Rinds of Walnuts,
Shells of Cockels and of Small Nuts:
Ribonds, Bells, and Saffron Linnin;
And all the World is ours to win in.
THE
Flax-Dresser's Wife of Spondon,
AND THE POUND OF TEA.
The following ballad, recounting the droll mistake made by a woman at Spondon, near Derby, who thought green tea was to be boiled as greens, and eaten accordingly as "cabbage and bacon," was printed in the "spirit of English wit," in 1809. It tells its own tale. It may be well to remark that flax was, some years ago, much grown in this part of Derbyshire: some meadows at Duffield through which the turnpike road passes, are still known by the name of Flax-holmes.
'Twas more than fifty years ago,
In Spondon's simple village,
Spondon, in Derbyshire, I trow,
Well known for useful tillage.
There dwelt a pair of simple souls—
The husband a flax-dresser;
His wife dressed victuals for his jowls,
And darn'd his hose—God bless her.