4 Out spake the bride's brither, As he cam' in wi' the kye: 'Poor Willie wad ne'er hae ta'en ye, Had he kent ye as weel as I; For ye're baith proud and saucy, And no for a poor man's wife; Gin I canna get a better, I'se ne'er tak ane i' my life.' * * * * *
1 There was an auld wife had a wee pickle tow, And she wad gae try the spinnin' o't; But lootin' her doun, her rock took a-lowe, And that was an ill beginnin' o't. She spat on 't, she flat on 't, and tramped on its pate, But a' she could do it wad ha'e its ain gate; At last she sat down on't and bitterly grat, For e'er ha'in' tried the spinnin' o't.
2 Foul fa' them that ever advised me to spin, It minds me o' the beginnin' o't; I weel might ha'e ended as I had begun, And never ha'e tried the spinnin' o't. But she's a wise wife wha kens her ain weird, I thought ance a day it wad never be spier'd, How let ye the lowe tak' the rock by the beard, When ye gaed to try the spinnin' o't?
3 The spinnin', the spinnin', it gars my heart sab To think on the ill beginnin' o't; I took't in my head to mak' me a wab, And that was the first beginnin' o't. But had I nine daughters, as I ha'e but three, The safest and soundest advice I wad gi'e, That they wad frae spinnin' aye keep their heads free, For fear o' an ill beginnin' o't.
4 But if they, in spite o' my counsel, wad run The dreary, sad task o' the spinnin' o't; Let them find a lown seat by the light o' the sun, And syne venture on the beginnin' o't. For wha's done as I've done, alake and awowe! To busk up a rock at the cheek o' a lowe; They'll say that I had little wit in my pow-- O the muckle black deil tak' the spinnin' o't.
Glover was a man so remarkable as to be thought capable of having written the letters of Junius, although no one now almost names his name or reads his poetry. He was the son of a Hamburgh merchant in London, and born (1712) in St Martin's Lane, Cannon Street. He was educated at a private school in Surrey, but being designed for trade, was never sent to a university, yet by his own exertions he became an excellent classical scholar. At sixteen he wrote a poem to the memory of Sir Isaac Newton, and at twenty-five produced nine books of his 'Leonidas.' Partly through its own merits, partly through its liberal political sentiments, and partly through the influence of Lord Cobham, to whom it was inscribed, and the praise of Fielding and Chatham, it became very popular. In 1739, he produced a poem entitled 'London; or, The Progress of Commerce,' and a spirited ballad entitled 'Admiral Hosier's Ghost,' which we have given, both designed to rouse the national spirit against the Spaniards.