The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #106940   Message #2214238
Posted By: Jim Dixon
12-Dec-07 - 11:14 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Railways Now Are All the Go with Steam,
Subject: Lyr Add: STEAM COACHES NOW ALL THE GO (Bodleian)
This is not exactly what was requested, but it might be related.

From the Bodleian Library allegro Catalogue of Ballads, 2806 c.17(407), "between 1789 and 1820":

STEAM COACHES NOW ALL THE GO

London is a funny place. New things they're always trying.
Coachmen now do look so wild, and sorely are bewailing.
Steam is come to such a pitch, to prevent your jolts and tosses,
That up to London you may ride in a coach without any horses!

Oh!--furious driving's all my eye, this is the dandy scheme, sir:
Now, if you want to break your necks, it must be done my steam, sir.
It's o'er the hills and far away, quite free from jolts and tosses,
You fly along with smoke and steam, in a coach without any horses.

A country man, the other day, took his place for London,
But soon the Joskin fell asleep, while the coach was easy running.
When he awoke, he rubbed his eyes quite free from jolts and tosses.
"Why, Coachmen,--why, I think we fly, but,--dang it!--where's thy horses?"

That horses now are out of use you surely are a dreamer.
We push along ten miles an hour and all done by the steamer.
A steamer, why, see some smoke, I'll tell you what my thought is:
That coachmen wish a jolly blow-up to coaches that run without horses.

Yon ostlers now you may lament, for you will lose your places,
For the all-glorious steam will now make you to pull long faces.
For asses now you surely keep, for you can keep no horses.
You'll curse the hour that e'er you saw coaches run without horses.

Corn dealers too will now look blue. They may shut their shop up,
For horses now pray who will keep for to eat the corn up.
Thousands more they may sore deplore, and fill their brains with crosses.
They'll curse the hour they ever saw coaches run without horses.