G'day Messmate,

Well, you've laboured mightily in an area of which I have little direct experience. I made a similar (if sketchier) set of annotations while wading through these verses. I just have a few comments on a few of your notes:

8: A.L. Lloyd ... Maybe you have something like the latest oddity of my two and two halves finger typing ... my left and right hands get out of sync ... and I double the wrong letter.

11: I think it's just called The Hartlepool Monkey ... ?

20: Rosbif is a standard french insult for an Englishman - a French corruption of "roast beef". The Old song The Roast Beef of England" compares patriotic roast beef to the newly introduced French ragoût.

29: I would have taken this as a direct reference to Sam Larner, of Winterton, a major source and contributor to the Radio Ballad Singing the Fishing ... and subject of the occasional allegation that Ewan MacColl "stole" the words of the song Shoals of Herring, rather than write it, based on Sam's characteristic speech.

35: Danny's chordal style of playing the English system concertina is unusual ... but his (recent) performances have me revising my opinion of the usability of the English System ... the the extent that I'm doing up an English System concertina to learn more of the way Danny does it!

51: It's a whole "Flashman" series of novels, by George Macdonald Fraser ... about a charming cad of an English cavalry officer ... doing well.

54: I don't know of any songs surviving in the tradition about the Rum Rebellion.

Charley: The folk clubs are pretty safe, these days ... just be careful around the Groves of Academe!

Regards,

Bob