Author: Anon

This poem appears in our anthology

Publication: Paisley Herald and Renfrewshire Advertiser

Published: 26 May 1866

Place of publication: Paisley, Scotland

Publication type: Newspaper/Periodical

A full copy of this poem is available.

This poem has a set tune, and its title is:
Green Grow the Rashes, O.

Recording:

More information about this recording

Archive/Library: Paisley Central Library

This poem forms part of a lengthy fictional piece on the front page of the Paisley Herald and Rernfrewshire Advertiser about the romantic courtship of widow Free Kirk and Mr U. Peabody, and is sung by both these characters at a Union Picnic in the 'Mutual Forebearance Garden'. It highlights the continued significance of the Church Question in Scottish politics which influenced perspectives on the extension of the franchise in all periods. (Disestablishment, for example, influenced debate on the extension of the franchise in 1885.) Similarly, politics is shown here to influence the Church Question - reference to free trade in the penultimate verse.