The Belfast spinners, for their part, sang (to the tune of The Girl I Left Behind Me) the Snuff Box Song, of which one version runs:

I give me curse to any girl
Who learns to be a spinner,
That has a discontented mind
From breakfast time to dinner.

When the mill it goes on
The belts is all a-crakin'.
The frames go like the railway train
And the ends is always breakin'.

When the gaffer he goes by
His tongue goes clitter clatter;
He rares and tears and he curses and swears
And says, What is the matter?

My frames are workin' very bad
And I can't take no dinner.
I take out my box and take a pinch,
And perhaps I'll spin the better.

Roy Palmer/The Sound of History, Betty Messenger/Picking up the Linen Threads