Dirty jobs by night are done.
And the Turncock likes the fun
Homeward then unto my bed,
There I'll rest my weary head
Skate in sleep and dream of ten
With a steady frost set in.
Is this pot of pitch I see
And tar-brush let me clutch thee?
I have thee not, and yet my brain
Bids thee clearly come again.-
Hast thou feelings, or is sight
Cheated by my brain to-night:
Yet I see thee - Far brush, still
Clutch thee, or be hanged I will
On thy bristles gouts of tar,
Stinking drops, as oft before.
Foul dream, away! Ghosts depart;
Give, oh, give me back my heart!
Round about the hedge I go,
On the adhesive pitch I throw
Pitch defiling to a dress,
Coat or breeches- filthy mess!
Far, tenacious now I shake
on the worn out rotters brake.
Crinolines shall rue the day
When I, Golding, came this way
Pot of trouble there and here
Yard by yard, I now besmear
Maidens stockings, manly breeks,
Well bedaubed with tarry streaks
High or low, or poor or sick,
Equal all defiled with pitch
Though Golding's nick name is Yeh you,
He, in the morn will shout Ah. oh!
As people oer the tarr'd-hedge bow
Ah ah! he'll shout, Ive got you now.
But, hish!
By the pricking of my thumbs
Some policeman this way comes!
By the earliest morning streak
By the clock I hear a beak
By my brush well skilled to smear,
Peeler must not catch me here
Adieu, old hedge! I'll say no more
Thou hast been tarred by me before
To. in these depths of garden shade,
I you policeman will evade.
[He descends]
Jan. 13.
Another of the Defiled
Repudiation. The following appeared in the Gazette of January 16th. In reply to numerous questions that have been put to us, as well as the several communications in our last issue in reference to the tarring the hedge which circumscribes the Subscription Gardens, we are authorised to state that while the proprietor very much regrets the injury to the dresses of persons who came in contact therewith, he emphatically disclaims all knowledge of the same until his attention was drawn to it by what appeared in the Gazette. With a consciousness of not having ordered it to be done, the proprietor immediately instituted an enquiry, which resulted in the discovery that a servant had done it of his own accord, and before there was any skating on the pond. The object is said to have been the prevention, if possible of the damage to the quick-set Hedge and bank so frequently perpetrated by boys clambering thereon, even after repeated notices to desist.
