Bumpers, Squire Jones

DESCRIPTION: If you like claret, or pine for female companionship, "don't pass the good House Moneyglass." Bumpers Squire Jones's claret will make you forget Cupid. Soldiers, clergy, lawyers, and foxhunters should forget their chores and dogs and stop for this claret.
AUTHOR: Arthur Dawson, Baron of the Exchequer (ca.1695-1775), music Turlough O'Carolan (1670-1738) (source: Sparling; see also Andrew Kuntz, Fiddler's Companion site)
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (Sparling)
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 56-57, "Bumpers Squire Jones" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 470-473, 498, "Bumpers, Squire Jones"
Roud #6532
NOTES [182 words]: The description is from Sparling, a more complete version than Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry.
Sparling: "For the origin of this song see Dublin University Magazine, January 1841."
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry: "Moneyglass House, which still [1925] stands neer Toomebridge in the County Antrim, was the residence of Bumpers Squire Jones, a character famous for his riotous hospitality. He is still talked about throughout the district, and this song is widely popular."
Bumper: [noun] "a cup or glass filled to the brim or till the liquor runs over esp. in drinking a toast"; [verb] "to fill to the brim (as a wineglass) and empty by drinking,""to toast with a bumper,""to drink bumpers of wine or other alcoholic beverages" (source: Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged, 1976). Croker-PopularSongsOfIreland: One bottle of whisky is about thirteen tumblers. - BS
The word "bumper" for a full tumbler is reportedly first found c. 1660, making its relation with the subject of this song somewhat interesting. - RBW
File: HayU056

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography