OLD HARRY'S RETURN. Susanna Blamire Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Blamire, Susanna, 1747-1794. The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire “The muse of Cumberland.” Now for the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale, M.D. with a preface, memoir, and notes by Patrick Maxwell, ... Edinburgh John Menzies, 61 Princes Street; R. Tyas, London; D. Robertson, Glasgow; and C. Thurnam, Carlisle. MDCCCXLII. 1842 pp. 196-197.

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OLD HARRY'S RETURN . Harry Macdowal . — Mrs Brown . This seems some incident which Miss Blamire had met with while resident in Scotland , as appears from the name Macdowal . THE wars are all o'er and my Harry's at hame , What else can I want now I've got him again ! Yet I kenna how 'tis , for I laugh and I cry , And I sigh , and I sab , yet it maun be for joy ; My Harry he smiles , and he wipes aff the tear , An' I'm doubtfu' again gin it can be he's here , Till he takes wee bit Janet to sit on his knee , And ca's her his dawty , for oh ! she's like me . Then the neighbours come in and they welcome him hame , And I fa' a greeting , though much I think shame ; Then I steal ben the house while they talk o' the war , For I turn cauld as death when he shows them a scar . They tell o' ane Elliot , an' brave he maun be , But I ken a poor soldier as brave yet as he ; For when that the Spaniards were wreck'd on the tide — " They are soldiers , my lads , let us save them , " he cried . At Gibraltar the English soldiers risked their lives in saving the Spaniards when their floating batteries were on fire . — Mrs Brown . The neighbours being gane , and the bairns on his knee , He fetch'd a lang sigh , and he look'd sair at me ; Poor woman , quo' he , ye'd hae muckle to do To get bread to yoursel , and thir wee bit things too ! It is true , my dear Harry , I toil'd verra hard , Sent Elspa to service , and Jocky to herd ; For I knew unca weel 'twas an auld soldier's pride Aye to take frae his King , but frae nae ane beside ! Then guide ye my pension , quo' Harry , my life , 'Mang a' the King's troops wha can match me a wife ; When young she was handsome , they envy'd me sair , But now when she's auld they may envy me mair ! What's a' the wide world to the joys o' the heart ? What are riches and splendour to those that maun part ? And might I this moment an emperor be , I'd thraw down the crown gin it kept me frae thee !