Benjamin Brierley

The Waverlow Bells

OLD Jammie and Ailse went a-down the brookside,
Arm-in-arm, as when young, before Ailse was a bride;
And what made them pause near the Hollybank wells?
'Twas to list to the chimes of the Waverlow bells.

"How sweet," said old Jammie, "How sweet on the ear,
Comes the ding-donging sound of yon curfew, my dear !"
But old Ailse ne'er replies—for her bosom now swells—
Oh, she loved in her childhood those Waverlow bells.

"Thou remember'st," said Jammie "the night we first met,
Near the Abbey Field gate—the old gate is there yet—
When we roamed in the moonlight, o'er fields and through dells,
And our hearts beat along with the Waverlow bells.

"And then that wakes morning, so early at church,
When I led thee a bride through the old ivy porch,
And our new home we made where the curate now dwells,
And we danced to the music of Waverlow bells.

"And when that wakes morning came round the next year,
How we bore a sweet child to the christ'ning font there;
But our joy-peals soon changed to the saddest of knells,
And we mourned at the sound of the Waverlow bells."

Then in silence, a moment, the old couple stood,
Their hearts in the churchyard, their eyes on the flood;
And the tear, as it starts, a sad memory tells—
Oh! they heard a loved voice in those Waverlow bells.

"Our Ann," said old Ailse, "was the fairest of girls;
She had heaven in her face, and the sun in her curls;
Now she sleeps in a bed where the worm makes its cells,
And her lullaby's sung by the Waverlow bells."

"But her soul," Jammie said, "she'd a soul in her eyes,
And their brightness is gone to its home in the skies;
We may meet her there yet, where the good spirit dwells,
When we'll hear them no more—those old Waverlow bells."

Once again—only once—this old couple were seen
Stepping out in the gloaming across the old green,
And to wander adown by the Hollybank wells,
Just to list to the chimes of the Waverlow bells.

Now the good folks are sleeping beneath the cold sod,
But their souls are in bliss with their daughter and God,
And each maid in the village now mournfully tells
How old Jamie and Ailse loved the Waverlow bells.