Come all ye bonny tyneside lads and listen to me song
Its all aboot a canny lass a lass I've courted long
She's a regular travelling merchant and sells herring, sticks and clay
Or anything else in season there's nowt gans out the way

It's a good job Sally wasn't born a duchess or a queen
For then I'd be left all forlorn me lass she'd never have been
But Sally's old folks had more sense than choose a high degree
Besides making her to suit themselves they made her to suit me.

It's usually sung in a more dialect-heavy way than I have written it here.


I agree that it should be 'nae hat and nae shawl' in the chorus.