Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

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	432	OUR FAMILIAR SONGS.
	in the gaiety of the moment, to produce a song that, if not superior, should be at least equal in absurdity to 'Castle Hyde,'and accordingly, taking Blarney for his subject, he soon made good his promise." The fifth stanza, beginning " Tis there's the kitchen hangs many a flitch in," was not written by Milliken. It was added at an electioneering dinner in the south of Ireland, and is (probably incorrectly) attributed to John Lander. It was evidently intended as an insult to Lord Donoughmore, who happened to be present, and turned its point by ap­plauding the verse, and then, in a humorous speech, winning the company. After Millikin's death, the following fragment was found among his papers: O, Blarney, in my rude, unseemly rhymes, Albeit abused, lo 1 to thy bowers I come — I come a pilgrim to your shades again, And woo thy solemn scenes with votive pipe. Shut not your glades, nymphs of the hollow rock, 'Gainst one who, conscious of the ill he did, Comes back repentant 1 Lead me to your dens, Ye fays and sylvan beings — lead me still Through all your wildly-tangled grots and groves, With Nature, and her genuine beauties full; And on another stop, a stop thine own, I'll sound thy praise, if praise of mine can please,— A truant long to Nature, and to thee 1 Francis Mahony (" Father Prout") added a stanza, to introduce the appropriate figure of the u Blarney Stone " into the otherwise perfect scenery:
	There is a stone there, That whoever kisses, Oh 1 he never misses To grow eloquent; 'Tis he may clamber To a lady'8 chamber, Or become a member Of Parliament.		A clever spouter He'll soon turn out, or An out-and-out-er, " To be let alone." Don't hope to hinder him, Or to bewilder him, Sure's he's a pilgrim From the Blarney Stone.