Here's another poem with very minor word changes. The tune started as Shady Grove, parts of it changed to Witch of the Westmereland, and then most of it finally morphed into a version of Lady Margaret where I think it'll stick. I like the song as an alternative to Cyril Tawney's Sally, Free and Easy; if you copy and past this back into Word in Times Font the chords should be closer to their correct position:

LIMEHOUSE REACH
(By C. Fox Smith in Full Sail, © 1926 Tune: adapted by Charlie Ipcar from Lady Margaret

G--F-G------------------D7----G-----F
Oh, I fell in love with a Lime-house lass,
----G--------D7-----G--C
But she has proved un-true;
----G--------------------------D7--G
She looked as fresh as a fi-gure-head
-------F----------G----F---G
That's just been paint-ed new;
------F-----G--------------------D7--G----F
Now she's took and married a keel-boat-man,
--------G-------D7-G-C
So it's time for me to go:
-------G----------------------------D7-G
But I would have loved you so, me dear,
--F------------G---F------G
I would have lov-ed you so!


Oh, a shake o' the foresheet pays for all
That a sailor leaves behind,
For an alehouse shot, and a friend forgot,
A sweetheart false or kind;
Now the bloomin' mudhook's off the ground,
And it's time for us to go:
But I would have loved you so, me dear,
I would have loved you so!

It's a long good-bye to Limehouse Reach,
And a last good-bye to you;
A feller's a fool to die for love,
Which I don't mean to do;
There's girls as smart in every port
From here to Cal-la-o:
But I would have loved you so, me dear,
I would have loved you so!

But I would have loved you so, me dear,
I would have loved you so!

Some may object to fitting Southern Appalachian tunes to nautical poems but there is a long tradition of doing that as with "Handsome Molly."

Cheerily,
Charley Noble