The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #14252   Message #2744573
Posted By: MGM·Lion
12-Oct-09 - 09:23 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Dinah and Villikens
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Dinah and Villikens
One of most widely reused tunes of all, except praps for Battle·Hymn/John·Browns·Body — used for Sweet Betsy From Pike, Soft Tomatoes [thread qv], &c.

Literary note: readers of Carroll's Alice will remember that Alice's cat in Thru the looking-Glass is called Dinah. The Liddells [the original Alice's family] also had a cat called Villikins; so the song was widely enough known to be used as a sort of family joke by the family of the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford.