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The Gauger / The Newcombe Gauger

[ Roud 2343 ; G/D 5:1015 ; Ballad Index Ord126 ; trad.]

Katherine Campbell: Songs From North-East Scotland John Ord: Bothy Songs and Ballads

Ewan MacColl sang The Gauger on his and A.L. Lloyd’s 1957 Topic album The Black Ball Line. This track was also issued in 1957 on their French Le Chante du Monde album Chants de Marins Anglais No 2 and on their Australian Wattle album Singing Sailors, and in 1958 on their American Stinson album Haul on the Bowlin’. A.L. Lloyd noted on the first album:

A gauger is an exciseman. This song dates from about 150 years ago, when liquor smuggling was going strong on the South-East coast of Scotland.

The Clutha sang The Gauger in 1971 on their Argo album Scotia!.

The Gaugers sang The Gauger in 1994 on their City of Aberdeen Libraries cassette Awa Wi the Rovin Sailor.

Barbara Dymock sang The Gauger on her 2016 album Leaf an’ Thorn.

Lyrics

Ewan MacColl sings The Gauger

There was a sailor brisk and neat,
A bonnie lassie he did entreat;
A bonnie lassie he did entreat
For to wed wi’ him, a sailor.

“Oh”, says the bonnie lassie, “but that won’t do,
For my mother she’d be in an awful stew,
My mother she’d be in an awful stew
If I went and married a sailor.”

“Then what contrivance can we make,
Or what contrivance can we take?
What contrivance can we make?
For to beguile your mammy?”

“Oh you’ll cast off your trousers blue
And you’ll on wi’ the garb o’ the gauger true
You’ll on wi’ the garb o’ the gauger true
And you’ll come tae oor town a gauger.

“And when you come into our town
Blythe and merry come you in,
Saying, ‘Have you any malt or gin?
For here am I, the gauger.’”

He’s cast off his claes of blue
And he’s on wi’ the garb o’ the gauger true,
He’s on wi’ the garb o’ the gauger true
And he’s come to the town as a gauger.

And when he came into their town
Blythe and merry went he in,
Saying, “Have you any malt or gin?
For here am I, the gauger.”

“Oh”, says the lassie, “come awa’
Maybe we have a cask or twa;
Maybe we have a cask or twa
Gin ye be the new-come gauger.”

Yes he’s searched but and he’s searched ben,
He’s searched out and he’s searched in,
But ne’er a drop o’ the gin could he find,
For he hadnae the wiles of a gauger.

“Come awa’, lassie, and let me see
Where that cask o’ gin may be;
If I don’t get the gin, lassie, I’ll get thee
For the guiling o’ the gauger.”

“Oh”, says the old wife, “and that’s well done
For she’s always ready with anyone,
She’s always ready with anyone
And most with the new-come gauger.”

But long ere before a month was done
The gauger and the lass were one;
He’s married her and off she’s gone;
She’s away wi’ the roving sailor!