I'm so pleased you seem to be getting the same pleasure from them as I am.
He's the only ancestor I've found with claim to fame of any sort. I don't seem to have any criminals, no movers and shakers, only the usual hardworking weavers, miners and ag labs, sprinkled with the odd mariner and innkeeper. So, no, I'm definitely not swapping.
I don't know if he made any money from his efforts, the preface to the booklet says:
"..conscious as he is that they will not stand the scrutiny of the learned or critical; but it is presumed that they will not be altogether unacceptable to his fellow workmen, for whom, alone, they are designed......... in giving them to the public, he trusts that they will judge of them with candour and not expect to find
elegant poetry, where all that was attempted was
rustic rhyme".
I can imagine him sat in the local inn or beerhouse (maybe eating one of those pies) and discussing the shortcomings of the local town authorities with the other locals.
ON BARNSLEY TOWN CLOCK
Barnsley Town Clock, it often is wrong;
It tells many lies with its hands and its tongue.
But you know it is old - perhaps in its youth,
It was more accustomed to speaking the truth.
I am well-informed its nurse takes great care,
To make it go right and its faults to repair;
But tho' he has failed in many cases,
He says it will do with a pair of new faces.
Some of its faults, permit me to mention:
Perhaps by mistake, or pehaps by intention, -
It often does speak when it ought to be dumb;
One would think it was drunk with brandy or rum.
At times it goes fast, at times it goes slow,
At times it does stop, and one step will not go,
A learned friend of the faculty saith, -
For want of pulsation, and shortness of breath.
The house where it dwells, may suit mice or rats,
Or it may accommodate owlets and cats:
In its windows and walls there are many breaches,
It may be a haunt for faries and witches.
It's called the Mute-Hall, I think it is mute,
That suitable name I will not dispute;
For no human voice is heard in the place:
It's a nuisance to man - to the town a disgrace.
Robert McLintock (1769-1858)
