• Home
  • About Us
    • Membership >
      • Application Form
    • Committee and Constitution
    • Cookie Notice
  • Current Season
    • Syllabus 2021/22
    • Syllabus 2020/21
    • Syllabus 2019/20
    • Syllabus 2018/19
    • Syllabus 2017/18
    • Syllabus 2016/17
    • Syllabus 2015/16
    • Syllabus 2014/15
    • Syllabus 2013/14
    • Syllabus 2012/13
    • Syllabus 2011/12
    • Syllabus 2010/11
    • Syllabus 2009/10
    • Syllabus 2008/09
  • Stirling's History
    • On This Day >
      • 16th January 1520
      • 4th December 1214
      • 19th Century Dates >
        • 31st January 1865
        • 1st March 1848
        • 6th May 1866
        • 11th May 1866
        • 23rd May 1899
        • 28th June 1814
        • 30th July 1870
        • 26th August 1899
        • 10th - 11th September 1877
        • 11th November 1878
      • 20th Century Dates >
        • 10th May 1924
        • 13th June 1900
        • 11th July 1914
        • 25th July 1911
        • 5th December 1905
    • Wallace Monument
    • Municipal Buildings
    • Stirling's Burial Grounds >
      • Ballengeich Cemetery
      • Blackfriars
      • Cambuskenneth Abbey
      • Erskine Mary-kirk
      • Stirling Holy Rude Kirk-yard >
        • Holy Rude Kirk-yard local fashion
        • Holy Rude Kirk-yard emblems
        • Holy Rude Kirk-yard new fashions
      • Snowdon Cemetery
      • Valley Cemetery >
        • Valley Cemetery Gravestones
    • Stirling's Prisons >
      • Tolbooth as Prison
      • Stirling Jail
    • Stirling's Schools
    • Stirling's Sports >
      • Kings Park Football Club >
        • Season 1898-1899
        • Dewar Shield Winners >
          • Dewar Shield 1899
      • Roller Skating Rink >
        • Roller Skating Opening
        • Olympia Roller Skating Rink
        • Roller Skating Carnivals
        • Roller Skating Charity Carnivals
        • Roller Skating Hockey
        • Roller Skating Sports Events
      • Raploch Skating Pond >
        • Search for Site
        • Opening Raploch Skating Pond
        • Managing Skating Pond >
          • Season 1902-1903
          • Regulations for Skating Pond
          • Busiest Season 1925
        • Ice Carnivals
        • Refreshment Room
    • Stirling's People >
      • John Allan, Architect
      • Dr. G.T. Galbraith >
        • Recollect 1
        • Recollect 2
      • David Taylor, Poet >
        • Royal Wedding Day Poem
      • Stirling Criers >
        • Dannie McVean
        • Isaac Spyron
        • Tammy Chalmers
    • Stirling Council Archives >
      • S.C.A. 2014 Collect >
        • S.C.A. Dr Welsh Trust Photos
        • S.C.A. Stirling of Gargunnock
        • S.C.A. Cambuskenneth Crossing
        • S.C.A. General Strike 1926
        • S.C.A. Customs Payable 1755
        • S.C.A. Whinwell Home
        • S.C.A. WW1 Postcards
        • S.C.A. Wallace Monument
        • S.C.A. Duncan McInnes
      • S.C.A. 2013 Collect >
        • S.C.A. Dr T. Lucas Diaries
        • S.C.A. Valentine's Day Cards
        • S.C.A. Old Polmaise House
        • S.C.A. Doune SWRI 1934
        • S.C.A. Aerial Photo Stirling
        • S.C.A. Deanston Mill c1930
        • S.C.A. Map of Cambuskenneth
        • S.C.A. Drymen Reading Club
      • S.C.A. 2012 Collect >
        • S.C.A. Conventicles Letter
        • S.C.A. Killearn Hospital
        • S.C.A. Titanic Anniversary
        • S.C.A. Modern Housing 1936
        • S.C.A. Trial of Radicals
        • S.C.A. Touch House Sale
        • S.C.A. Snowdon Industrial School for Girls
        • S.C.A. Suffragette Action
        • S.C.A. 2nd World War Scrapbook
      • S.C.A. 2011 Collect >
        • S.C.A. McLaren Collect
        • S.C.A. Debtors Prison
        • S.C.A. C.R.Mackintosh
        • S.C.A. Murray Polmaise Collect
    • Further Information >
      • Local Organisations
      • National Sources
  • Projects and Development
    • John Allan Booklet
    • Stirling Stone Survey
    • King's Knot Survey >
      • King's Knot Survey Techniques
      • King's Knot Survey Results
      • King's Knot Pictures
      • King's Knot Pictures more
      • King's Knot Poster
      • September Continuation
      • King's Knot Survey Updated Results
      • King's Knot Survey Interpretation
      • King's Knot Radar Survey
  • Blog
Stirling Local History Society

A Stirling Bellman - Broadsheet marking death of Dannie McVean

In the Stirling Observer of the 8th August 1944 an article entitled “A Stirling Bellman” was published relating to the death in 1854 of Dannie McVean, for
some years the Town Bellman in Stirling. Recently it said, a poem in the form of a printed broadside,
marking Dannie’s death had come into the hands of the Stirling Observer, signed “JMC.” The
Observer reprinted it, after first reprinting another poem which they considered “less facetious.”
Poem one
The bell had been toll’d for the bellman so bold,
An’ Danny McVean is noo laid in the mould,
An’ there’s weepin’an wailin’ ‘mang women an’ men,
For they’ll aye ken the want o’ auld Danny McVean.

A later verse -
Whate’er heard him speak after jowlin’ the bell,
Wad ken that he made e’en his grammar himsel’.
For the great Lindley Murray he - caredna a preen,
A wonderfu’ speaker was Dannie McVean.

Poem two “Auld Dannie McVean” to Air Johnny Cope

What wae’fu news is this we hear,
That on our streets ye’ll nae mair appear,
Wi’ bell in han’ our hearts tae cheer,
Wi’ something in the mornin’,

When tinkle, tinkle, gaid ye’r bell
As ye’ went through the folks tae tell,
O’ Haddies fresh new arrived tae sell
At Mrs Love’s in the mornin’.

Notish---Fresh haddies—and cods--
and ither shell fish – shust new arrived
-- and partens, and to be sold at Mrs Love’s.
In Port Street, in the mornin’.

When the Judges cam’ ye were there sae braw,
Wi’ ye’r three cockit hat, an ye’r spear in ye’r paw,
An a shabble by te’r side that wid ne draw
Frae oot o’ its sheath, nae mornin’.

Yet tinkle, tinkle, gaed ye’r bell
As ye gaed through the folk tae tell
What things were lost, what things to sell,
Through o’ot the toon in the mornin’.

Notish – There were Stolen ------
Strayed, frae the grounds o’ Major
Wesherton o’ Hendershon, a broon
and black spotted white pointer bich,
answers to the name o’ Zhuno, wha
may have found the same after this
Notish, will be prosecuted
By the toon’s Fischkal in the mornin’.

It charmed the urchins hearts tae hear
The tinkle o’ y’er bell sae clear
As ye’ gaed through a’the folks to spear
Wha had found a lost booa in the mornin’.

Then tinkle, tinkle, gaed y’er bell
As ye gaed through the folks tae tell
What things were lost or what tae sell
Amongst us a’ in the mornin’.

Notish –there was losht -----
the Allan Brigg and the Head
Causey, late last nicht, or at an
hoor this mornin’, a lady’s boo- and
an umbrella belonging to a shentleman
with an ivory head, whoever may hae
found the same, and will bring them
to him, withoot askin’ ony queshton
as to wha pelang to them, shall handsomely
Rewarded for their trouble in the mornin’.

Adieu Auld Dannie, may ye lang stoit aboot,
Wi’ y’er staff in y’er han’ and ye’r jolly old snoot,
Isaac Spyron has now got a new clear field to rout
Wi the Bow! Wow! Wow! in the mornin’.
​
Yet we’ll sair miss the tinkle o’ ye’r bell
And ye’r weel kent voice by the which ye’ tell,
O’ Haddies fresh new arrived tae sell
At Mrs Love’s in the mornin’. (JMC)
SLHS is a Registered Charity: No.SCO38247
Site and content copyright © SLHS All rights reserved
Proudly powered by Weebly