The Song of the Jolly Lagger

‘We come from Shoreditch

                                       Gorbals

                                                   Bishopsgate

Clerkenwell, Spitalfields and old St. Giles,

The ladies on the town and the gents on the dip,

And the capital coves from the old hulk ship.

I’ve been on the cross since eleven or so

And I’ve pushed a few down for a bob,

But the nosers get a little too hot for a lag

And the runners do a bad-cess job.’

 

‘I’ve been to Brixton

                         Newgate

                                         Maidstone

Bridewell, Compter, and once in Steel,

Manning was hanging and his wife turned off

As I found a new watch on a Park Lane toff.

I met me a man with a tattooed arm

And a prostitute known as Nell,

We were nailed by the sale of the lead from a church

With a journey that we couldn’t quite sell.’

 

‘I’ve gone through Jackson

                                       Norfolk

                                                    Maquarie

Ports Arthur and Phillip, Van Diemen’s curse,

I’ve dragged a lot of chain, and I’ve done a lot of time

And I took a lot of lash on this back of mine;

But I never did sing when the cat came down

Though I took to the bush when I could,

The bushranging life for a shiftless man

Does his soul quite a power of good.’

 

‘We come from Shoreditch

                                       Gorbals

                                                   Bishopsgate

Clerkenwell, Spitalfields and old St. Giles,

Living in the shadows of the well-worn gallows

Of the cat-o-nine tails and the capital coves.

See ‘em turned off as we dipped for a guinea

Or pitched and tossed for a shilling,

If I had it all again I’d still be a lag…

While money’s still money, and my pockets keep filling.’

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Chad Wesley Allbrett]

I sure liked this one. What century where you thinking of in particular? Or were you? They flogged and hung folk for centuries in England didnt they? -Well done; one of those that I like to re-read.