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Buy Broom Besoms (2) 
Buy Broom Besoms (2)

 1. Buy broom besoms, Better never grew; Bonny heather reenges, Wha'll hae them noo?

 Besoms for a penny, Reenges for a plack; And ye winna hae them, Tie them on ma back!

 2. Buy broom beesoms, Wha'll buy them nou, Fine heather reenges, Better nivver grew;

 Reenges for a penny, Besoms for a plack, And if ye dinna want tae buy them Help them on ma back.
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 (1) Montgomerie SC (1948), 146 (no. 262), "Besom-Seller's Cry", from Fife; (2) Cheape & Sprott, Angus Country Life (1980), 46, an old "tinker lullaby". 
Reenges = "scrubbers", often made of heather. Var. of 1-4, Rymour Club Misc. I (1906-11), 171: "Fine broom besoms! Wha'll buy them noo?/ Fine heather ranges! Better never grew." Ibid. II (1912-19), 110, "Tinker's or Gypsy's Rhyme", = st.2: "There's besoms for a penny, and reenges for a plack;/ If ye beena gaun to buy them, Come, lift them on my back." Full version in Northumbrian Minstrelsy (1882), 118 [of which our text approx. = chorus and st. 2], with music, whence Dick Songs 255 (No. 273), to Burns' "Wha will buy my troggin?" (written 1796). Two other songs to the tune survive in Burns' holograph, probably traditional pieces collected by him: --Kinsley, 913-14, no. 626 A-B. The texts are from Davidson Cook's transcripts from the Law MSS (Burns Chronicle, 1926, 60-61). [The second of these is a version 
of "Says the auld man Tae the oak tree", q.v.] MS