The men we have chosen for wisdom and wit
For the good of the town, in council to sit,
By some strange delusion did all of them jump
To the hasty conclusion “We must have a pump”
A cart we have bought, for flushing the drains,
For fear of them stopping in three or four lances
A horse in the river with that tab at its rump
Will be ruined for ever – We must have a pump.
A pump “yes” say some, we must have on a hill
For many who come there, their buckets to fill
But women are wiser, for old Mrs Grump
Says the water wont lather that comes from a pump
The pump by the way, with its high and white post
All passers-by say it looks like a ghost
And on the frame round it, if two men do jump
By filling the barrel, they empty the pump
Tis a sure sign of wisdom our folly to own
They all now agree the pump must come down
It cost thirty pounds, we may say by the lump
All rate payers say, down, down with the pump.
Tis useless, a frightful disgrace to the town
A fatherless pauper, so let it come down
But the platform might stand for an orator’s stump
And on it be written” Remember the Pump”