Excellent new song, called, The smugglers and the gaugers/The Smugglers and Gaugers

the

SMUGGLERS’ and GAUGERS.

Air———Bonnets sae Blue.

⁠Come all my brave fellows, sad listen a while,
I’ll tell yon the way that they did us beguiie;
The King’s Lyon-Herald from Edinburgh did come,
And straight to Coalsnaughton the rascals did run.

⁠They came to my mothers, and guarded all-round,
They thought we would run but the contrar’ they found;
So straight down to Alloa we came all away,
To Ramsay’s in the Tontine, and made no delay.

⁠Being innocent all, no harm we thought on;
But came down to Alloa, before Mr. Horn,
The same who is Agent for the Excise-Law,
We made no delay, so we all came awa(illegible text)

⁠But had we but known what Warrand they had,
We would not gone with them, but given them the bag;
But since Fortune has said it t(illegible text) let it be so,
From the Tontine to Stirling in coaches we'll go.

⁠The seventeenth of April our trial we did (illegible text),
Before Lords and Jury, that honourable band;
But for all the false oaths that were going that day,
I would have come off, had I gotten fair play.

⁠But D—n, the rascal, he forward did come,
And gave in two letters, to get us undone;
Before the Lords they were laid, and shown most rare,
That we fished for salmon, and shot at the hare.

⁠There’s D—n and R—t, and J—s, as you see,
They perjur’d themselves for the ruin of me;
But the day it is coming when judged they’ll be;
And it will be shown them they swore to a lie.

⁠D—n was examin’d, and he did declare,
That th(illegible text) Still and the malt in the Store up-laid were;
But Peter the gardener, that very same day,
Did carry the Still to Muircoat straight away.

⁠But it’s needless for me to say what I could tell,
If they don’t get repentance, the worse for themsel’,
So I’d have them to pray wherever they be,
For the unfounded falsehoods they swore against me.

⁠But praying, I think, is what they wont do,
And therefore I wish for ill trade to the crew;
But may Heaven, with pity, look down on the three,
And grant them repentance, and grace that is free.

⁠And now, my dear friends, I bid you farewel,
My (illegible text)‘s grown to weary no more will she tell;
But the story I have told you, I’m sure it is true,
And I’ll comeback and see you when time will allow.