Text divider from 'The True Hearted Maiden', a chapbook printed in Glasgow in 1802
A SWEET COUNTRY LIFE.
Asweet country life is both pleasant & charming, For to walk abroad in a fine summer's morning, Your houses and cities, and lofty fine towers, Can never compare to the sweet shady bowers.
O little do I admire your robes and fine dresses, Your silks, and your scarlets, and other excesses, For my own country clothing's to me more endearing, Than your pretty sweet mantle, for my home-spun wearing.
No fiddle nor flute, no hautboy, or spinnet, Can ever compare with the lark and the linnet, Down as I lay among the green bushes, I was charmed by the notes of the blackbirds and thrushes.
As Johnny the ploughboy was walking along, To fetch up his cattle so early in the morn, He spied pretty Nancy among the green rushes, Singing more sweet than the blackbirds & thrushes.
On yonder hills and lofty high mountains, As the sheep were a grazing on each day morning, Bright Phebus did shine, & the hills were adorning, As Molly sat milking on a fine summer's morning.
So now to conclude and end my ditty, To all country lasses that are sweet and pretty, Never forsake your own country employment, No city can afford so sweet an enjoyment.
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