To Ray: I normally send off the MIDIs immediately after I post the lyrics, but you've got to expect some latency! Joe's been a brick about getting these things posted in short order. The one time I sent him the MIDI before posting the lyrics, he beat me to the draw! If I wore a hat, it would be off to him.


To Sminky: The 1870 mention of "The Leicestershire Squire" is interesting because this is the subtitle of "A Jolly Old Country Squire", which the sheet music called "Harry Clifton's Last Song", and the serial number seems to bear this out. I thought it possible that "Last" simply meant "latest", but no other piece of sheet music I've seen made a similar boast, or has a later H&C serial number. The 1870 date, however, makes the boast questionable, since Clifton continued working (and, presumably, writing new material) until shortly before his death. On the other hand, the cover of JOCS also bore the subtitle "Yo! Ho! Tally Ho! and Away We Go", so the publishers may have confused two separate Clifton squire songs; there are no place names in the lyrics that would specifically tie JOCS to Leicestershire.