The Ride in London- (Scotland) c.1790 Burns
[My date. From: The Merry Muses, a Choice Collection of Favourite Songs compiled by Robert Burns - 1827. This edition was first published in the early 1800s. The text here is from the 1827 edition.
This bawdy text is nearly identical to the c.1770 Frisky Songster text.
R. Matteson 2017]
THE RIDE IN LONDON.
As I went through London city,
'Twas at twelve o'clock at night,
There I saw a damsel pretty,
Washing her jock[1] by candlelight.
When she washed it, then she dried it,
The hair was black as coal upon't;
In all my life I never saw,
A girl that had so fine a ....[2]
My dear— said I— what shall I give you
For a go... at you know what?
Half-a-crown, if you are willing,
Two shillings, or you shall not.
Eighteen pence, my dear, I'll give you—
Twenty pence, or not at all—
With all my heart! it is a bargain-
So up she mounts a cobbler's stall.
My dear, said I, how shall I ride you,
The gallop, amble, or the trot?
The amble is the easiest pace, sir—
With all my heart, so up I got.
The envious cobbler heard our parley,
And through a hole he thrust his awl,
Which pricked my girl right in her bottom,
And threw the rider from the stall.
1. Frisky Songster has "joke"
2. The missing word is "cunt."