The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #121706   Message #3141839
Posted By: Joe_F
24-Apr-11 - 05:27 PM
Thread Name: Didn't know the Vicar of Bray
Subject: RE: Didn't know the Vicar of Bray
Colin Ellis (1895-1949) brings the song up to date, more sedately having the coat turned only from generation to generation. He begins:

In Queen Victoria's early days,
    When Grandpapa was vicar,
The squire was worldly in his ways,
    And far too fond of liquor.
My grandsire laboured to exhort
    This influential sinner,
As to and fro they passed the port
    On Sunday after dinner.

It's in the New Oxford Book of English Light Verse.