I also knew it as "father's grave"...I remember my step-father used to sing it. I am also reminded of a Victorian-style ditty of my late father's, which concerns a family unable to pay the rent when the landlord has come round, and had threatened to burn down the privy. One of the ragged children is singing plaintively: Please don't burn our shit-house down Mother has promised to pay Father's away on the ocean blue And sis in the family way Brother dear has gonorrhoea And times is fuckin' hard So please don't burn our shit-house down Or we'll have to shit in the yard. I once sang this at a Bucknell Morris Ale, for Mick Jones who was at one time the pipe and tabor player for Wheatley Morris...he was absolutely speechless with mirth..!!!
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