Ihe Merry Past 



ye Divers " ; " Fal de ral tit '' ; Lc Moine's " Saucy 

 Rolling Blade " ; " My Nancy quits the rural train " ; 

 " Why should the foolish Marriage Vow." 



From 1789 to 1799: "The Little Ploughboy " ; 

 " Cheer up, my lads " ; " The Jew Boy " ; " O, my 

 Billy, my Billy " ; " The Little Dandy " (the 

 author of this song, whoever he may have been, 

 is entitled to the honour of having furnished the 

 public with a substitute for the term Macaroni) ; 

 ", Ballast Heaving." 



From 1799 to 1809: "Teddy the Grinder"; 

 "High randy dandy O"; "A Valiant Soldier I 

 dare not name " ; " O Dear, what can the matter 

 be ? " " Nobody's coming to marry me " ; " The 

 Curly-headed Boy " ; " Jenny's Baubee." 



From 1809 to 1822 ; " I'll cross the Salt Seas " ; 

 " Pretty blue-eyed Stranger." 



After this date popular songs began to approximate 

 in character to the old-fashioned music-hall ditty 

 which still survives in a somewhat bowdlerised form. 

 The music-hall itself did not take its place as a public 

 amusement till a considerably later date, though 

 many informal bacchanalian gatherings were held 

 where songs were sung and enormous quantities of 

 drink were consumed. 



The drinking habits of the English in the past 

 were of such a kind as to make the records almost 

 beyond belief. At Harwich, for instance, in 1796, 

 three topers, determined to have a thorough soaking, 

 set to one day and drank fifty-seven quarts of upright, 

 that is to say a quart of beer with a quartern of gin 



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