J. Ewing Ritchie, The Night Side of London (London: William Tweedie, 1857)"

"Everything [along Ratcliffe Highway] has a nautical adaptation. The songs sung are nautical. The last time I was there an old woman was singing to a crowd of the 'Saucy Sailor Boy' who, coming disguised in poverty to his lady love, is by her ignominiously rejected, to whom rejecting he tells of his real riches, and by whom the rejection is eagerly recalled, but in vain, for the Saucy Sailor Boy declares:-

'Do you think I am foolish, love?
Do you think I am mad,
For to wed a poor country girl,
When there's fortune to be had?

'So I'll cross the briny ocean,
Where the meadows are so green,
And since you have refused my offer, love,
Some other girl shall wear the ring.' "