"Tam's New Boots" - an oul poem aboot shoon fae Newtown.

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This poem was given to me last Wednesday by a lady at Ards Historical Society, and I have her permission to post it here to share it with any readers who are interested.

A used tae buy grate muckle boots
That made my feet nae shape ava
An aye A stuffed the taes wi' cloots
But aye the heels wud gang athraw

A went tae Newtownerds yin Monday
An' jest whun passin' James McKee's
A stapt an glowered in his wunday
Thinks I 'There's sumthin there wud please'

A'm shair A seen a thoosan' pair
O' boots an' shoon o' ivery size
An' slippers bordered roon wi' hair
An' nice wee patent ankle-ties

A steppit in, a wee thin blate
The mester lauched - A think he pent me
He tell't me fur till tak a sate
An throwed a goat skin doon fornent me

My shoon amused him ower ocht
Sez he 'My dacent man, A tell ye
The shap, whauriver them was bocht
At ony rate haes gien ye velye'.

A wush ye seen the yins A tuk
An' whun he rowled them up in paper
He gied me sumthin back fur luck
Altho' A did not want them chaper

Man whun A put them on that nicht
A thocht A wuz some ither buddy
A felt that smart, an young an licht
A cudnae stan yin minit study

The fowk frae a' the country roon
Cummed in an' axed my boots tae see
An iver since they a' gang doon
An' fit themsels wi James McKee

James McKee, Practical Boot & Shoemaker, 80 High Street, Newtownards.

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(the advert above has been recreated from WG Lyttle's The Bangor Season (1885)