Besom Ben Stories

Edwin Waugh (1817-1890) was a British poet. After a little schooling, he apprenticed to a printer. Waugh read eagerly, and became assistant secretary to the Lancashire Public School Association. He first attracted attention by his sketches of Lancashire life and character in the Manchester Examiner. He wrote also in prose Factory Folk, Besom Ben Stories and The Chimney Corner. His best work was his Lancashire dialect songs, collected as Poems and Songs (1859), which brought him great local fame. Amongst his other works are Sketches of Lancashire Life and Localities (1857), Rambles in the Lake Country and its Borders (1861) and Lancashire Songs (1865).