About 1775 the English people first began to hear of George Washington, and a certain section of them were much surprised and horrified to learn that the Americans, with him at their head, had thrown off dutiful allegiance to George III. and were determined on a Government of their own. Upon this, a song in ridicule of the American army, and on what were deemed the "brags" or idle boasts of its leader, appears to have sprung up in England. Here, I must confess, I am at fault, for in spite of much search in contemporary collections of songs and in other likely places, I have been unable to unearth it. Possibly it never reached a more exalted station than on a broadside. The air survives, for I find two copies of it in a couple of musical manuscript books in my possession, one bearing the date 1791. The air, with its title, is as follows:—
"THE BRAGS OF WASHINGTON."
(From a MS. Copy.)
It is more than likely that the air, as it here stands, is much earlier than Washington's time, for song writers then were very prone to write to airs which were already well known. Before the conclusion of the American war, we, in addition to our other bellicose engagements, had entered into a war with Spain, and Lord Rodney took a high naval command.
In January, 1780, his victory off Cape St. Vincent caused his name to ring through the land. The song about Washington's idle boasts (especially seeing what he had already done) soon fell into disuse, and the tune was used for a ditty in praise of Lord Rodney; this was called "To Rodney we will go." Scarcely any change was made in the air, and a copy published in Aird's third "Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs" (Glasgow, 1788), is virtually as the manuscript copy given above. The song bearing the refrain, "To Rodney we will go," along with the lively air held public favour until Wellington's victories in the Peninsula caused him to supersede Rodney as the popular hero, and at the time of the battle of Waterloo a new song to the old air came to the front. This is the first verse out of many on a ballad sheet:—
'Twas on the eighteenth day of June
Napoleon did advance
The choicest troops that he could raise
Within the bounds of France.
Their glittering eagles shone around
And proudly looked the foe,
But the British Lion tore their wings
On the Plains of Waterloo.
Chorus.
With Wellington we'll go, we'll go,
With Wellington we'll go;
For Wellington commanded
On the Plains of Waterloo.
While Waterloo was still fresh in people's memory an ill-advised action upon the part of the Manchester magistrates against Henry Hunt's reform demonstration in St. Peter's Fields caused the memorable "Peterloo." This was in 1819, and immediately a ballad upon the event was much sung, still to the same old tune:—
With Henry Hunt we'll go, we'll go,
With Henry Hunt we'll go;
We'll raise the cap of liberty,
In Spite of Nadin Joe.*
[* Joseph Nadin was the Manchester constable who held the warrant for the apprehension of Henry Hunt; it was the attempt to execute this which led to the unhappy consequences. The yeomanry cavalry, without warning, dashed among the crowd, sword in hand, causing many deaths and injuries innumerable; even artillery was brought upon the scene. Waterloo being 60 fresh in people's memory, the event was spoken of as the "Battle of Peterloo." A somewhat similar dispersal of a Chartist's meeting in Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1839, was called "Spitaloo"; and a song upon the same lines as the Waterloo and "Peterloo" songs was much sung. It was set to the air we are at present dealing with.]
From this time forward the air became the vehicle for lyrics in praise of popular candidates at election time, and as lately as 1852 was so employed on behalf of Sir George Goodman (Member for Leeds). At this time, too, street singers used the tune for a comical song descriptive of the troubles of a wife who has to provide for a household on five-and-twenty shillings a week, giving a categorical list of the money spent on each article:
She reckoned up and showed him,
And the answer gave complete,
How five-and-twenty shillings
Were expended in a week.
In addition to this and the political ballads spoken of, it has been used throughout English country districts, from Yorkshire to Devonshire, for a folk-song called "The Nut Girl"; or, "A-nutting we will go," and this brings us to the Irish versions of the air. Edward Bunting, in his third collection of Irish music (1840), publishes a version in 6-8 time, put to a verse of "The Jolly Ploughman," which is really an Irish copy of "The Nut Girl."
Bunting states that he noted the air in 1792 from J. Duncan (a harper), and that it is "very ancient," from which latter opinion I, with some diffidence, venture to differ:—
"THE JOLLY PLOUGHMAN."
(From Bunting's Irish airs, 1840.)
Beside the one adapted to "The Jolly Ploughman," a very beautiful setting of the air (and possibly an older version) was known in Ireland at the beginning of the present century as "Moll Roone." Thomas Moore, so far as I have ascertained, first published it in December, 1813, in his fifth number of the "Irish Melodies," with the words, "Farewell; but whenever you welcome the hour."
"MOLL ROONE."
(From Moore's "Irish Melodies," 1813)
George Thomson, in 1816, gives a copy in his Irish Collection, Vol. II., as do R. A. Smith in the "Irish Minstrel," circa 1825, and J. Monro in the "Gleaner" of the same date.
Some time in the "forties," Samuel Lover was writing his excellent songs and delighting appreciative audiences by his own rendering of them. One of the number was "The Lowbacked Car," still a favourite. Lover was well acquainted with his country's folk-songs and melodies, and having much natural love for, as well as some technical skill in music, he very happily adapted as well as actually composed airs for his songs. The melody of "The Lowbacked Car" is generally, if not always, printed as being of Lover's own composition; but I think an attentive examination of the airs to which I have drawn attention will show that Lover did no more than arrange his air from one of these, most likely the "Jolly Ploughman," with which he no doubt had been acquainted from his youth.