Here's a good Tavern song. I didn't find it under "M" in DT, so I figure it's new to many of us (except to Bruce O.)

THE MISTRESS' HEALTH Collected by J. A. Fuller Maitland from John Burberry, gamekeeper, September, 1892. Published in Lucy E. Broadwood and J.A. Fuller Maitland, English County Songs, Leadenhill Press, London, and Scribners, New York, 1893.

Solo: Here's a health unto the misteress, the fairest of twenty: Chorus: O is she so? is she so ? is she so ? Solo: Is our glass full, or is your glass empty ? Chorus: Come let us know, let us know, let us know. Solo: We'll drink him out so deep and we'll sing ourselves to sleep, and sing ho! and sing ho! and sing ho! Chorus: We'll drink him out so deep and we'll sing ourselves to sleep, and sing ho! and sing ho! and sing ho!

We could modify the words, say to "here's a health to Little Neophyte, the fairest of twenty". Or if we are willing to modify the note values a little, we could sing, "Here's a health to Sgt. Kat and her Mudcat Commandos, the fairest and most dangerously armed of twenty thousand".

T.