Henry's Songbook

Kate ye're bonnie, Kate ye're sweet
'Tis a shame ye cannae use yer feet
When ye go bauchlin' up the street
Hirslin' on yer way, o

Long black hair hangs doon yer back, yer dress is like a pedlar's sack
Watch ye dinna fa' doon a crack as ye go hirslin' by, o

Blocks o' wood upon yer hands as alang the streets ye gang
As noisy as a German band as ye go on yer way, o

Up the brae an' doon the lane, ower the fields it's a' the same
Ye even poach the fairmer's game but ye cannae get a man, o

(as sung by Cilla Fisher & Artie Trezise)

[1990:] Both [Freddie Anderson and] another modern songwriter whose name is mislaid [...] have written songs about [a well-known old Glasgow street] character, Hirstlin' Kate, who had lost the use of her legs altogether. The unknown writer begins, to a tune from Newfoundland, [with the chorus above].
While Freddie says

See Hirstlin' Kate o' the town
On her brushes go sweepin' round
Some heads may be high, peerin' into the sky
But Katie's is fixed on the ground

(McVicar, One Singer One Song 127)