👓 Scots Word of the Season: ‘Leerie’ | The Bottle Imp

Read Scots Word of the Season: ‘Leerie’ (The Bottle Imp)

Leerie n. a lamplighter, who lit gas lamps in towns and cities (before electric light)
The word leerie is perhaps best known nowadays from the nostalgic poem ‘The Lamplighter’ by Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894). The character, ‘Leerie’, is depicted as a romantic wanderer who charms th...

I have to wonder if traffic on the site has picked up for this word based on the recent opening of the film Mary Poppins Returns?

It seems that leeries are just as pictuesque and poetic in other incarnations as they are depicted in Mary Poppins Returns. Why the romanticism for such a menial and dirty seeming profession?