[From Manxiana, 1870]

THE SULBY PUMP.

Here come the village folks,
With a hey, oh! and a skip and a jump,
The old and the young, with kettles and pans,
With buckets, and jugs, and watering cans,
All crowding round the pump?
My pump, near the kitchen door,
Ah ! what a sad grievance it is,
As out runs the servant to hold her chat.
And learn what the village folks are at,
And show her own merry phiz.
Says one, I wish you'd lend
A gridiron my herring to fry;
Another a spade, another a grill,
Another this bottle with wine you'd fill
For neighbour who's like to die.
Chattering and borrowing all,
Pumping and pumping goes on;
News within doors — priest's friends and his foes,
His doings and sayings, his library, his nose,
Are chatted and commented on.
Does he smoke ?. — does he snuff ? —
Is he a good or a bad master, I say
" As a doctor we like him" — I heard some tell, "
He has physic enough to make us well,
And will tend us without any pay."
Consult the vicar I must,
This grievance, then, how to abate; "
Put up with it, my brother, I pray,.
" A bench put around your pump to — . — .
Hold converse with small and great."
His advice was surely good,
Of liberty licence they made;
The garden they ranged, and cut up the kale,
And borrow'd (or took) beans and peas wholesale,
And never return'd me my spade.
' I said this never will do,
A pump I'll sink near the road if I can ;
Says Actney, the mason, " I'll find you a man
Who'll sink you a pump on the following plan,
If you'll fill with rum a quart-can:-
Place it right over the spot
Where the well you would wish for to sink;
First sight of water is first taste of rum,
This tell him — and water right quickly will come,
And o'erflow all over the brink."
One day did. the work in hand,
The man from Ballaugh did the job;
He early set to, and ere evening hour,
There ran in his well a full water-power,
To quench the thirst of the mob.
The pump the carpenter made,
He made it by means of a pipe,
Right through it so leading, that every pump stroke
Gave me plenty of water, enough for to soak
My garden ground, just as I'd like.


 

Back index next

 

Any comments, errors or omissions gratefully received The Editor
HTML Transcription © F.Coakley , 2002