I was listening to Mike Harding on my car radio last night as I drove to ringing practice. A Glasgow girl (whose name I didn't catch) sang Charlie is my Darling, and she sang the last bit of the chorus as "the young Chevalier." The DT, similarly, has "Chevalier."

Now, I first learned that song from Singing Together, a BBC schools programme (11:00am on Monday mornings) then hosted by William Appleby, in about 1955. And I'm sure that then we sang the last line as "the young Shelmalier." Not sure about the spelling, and not sure either whether it was every chorus or just the last time, but I'm very clear about the pronounciation: shell-ma-leer. I can't find the word in my dictionary, though, under any conceivable spelling.

Is my memory letting me down (as it does sometimes -- my wife says frequently -- these days), or is there an alternative?