The Welchman’s Song in praise of Wales.
I’s come not here to tauke of Prut,
From whence the Welse dos take hur root;
Nor tell long pedegree of Prince Camber,
Whose linage would fill full a chamber;
Nor sing the deeds of ould Saint Davie,
The Ursip of which would fill a navie,
But hark you me now, for a liddell tales
Sall make a great deal to the creddit of Wales,
For hur will tudge your eares,
With the praise of hur thirteen seers;
And make you as glad and merry,
As fourteen pot of perry.
There are four other stanzas; one of them mentions the leek:
But all this while was never think
A word in praise of our Welse drink:
Yet for aull that is a cup of bragat
Aull England seer may cast his cap at.
And what you say to ale of Webley,
Toudge him as well, you’ll praise him trebly
As well as metheglin, or syder, or meath,
Sall sake it your dagger quite out o’ the seath.
And oat cake of Guarthenion,
With a goodly leek or onion,
To give as sweet a rellis
As e’er did Harper Ellis.[16]
In “Time’s Telescope,” an annual volume already mentioned for its pleasant varieties and agreeable information, there is a citation of flouting lines from “Poor Robin’s Almanac,” of 1757, under the month of March:
The first of this month some do keep,
For honest Taff to wear his leek;
Who patron was, they say, of Wales,
And since that time, cuts-plutter-a nails,
Along the street this day doth strut
With hur green leek stuck in hur hat,
And if hur meet a shentleman
Salutes in Welch; and if hur can
Discourse in Welch, then hur shall be
Amongst the green-horned Taffy’s free.
The lines that immediately succeed the above, and follow below, are a versified record of public violence to the Welch character, which Englishmen in this day will read with surprise:
But it would make a stranger laugh
To see th’ English hang poor Taff;
A pair of breeches and a coat,
Hat, shoes and stockings, and what not;
All stuffed with hay to represent
The Cambrian hero thereby meant;
With sword sometimes three inches broad,
And other armour made of wood,
They drag hur to some publick tree,
And hang hur up in effigy.
These barbarous practices of more barbarous times have disappeared as knowledge has advanced.