The tradition died when we all sat back and let others make our culture for us and became passive recipients of our songs rather than makers and interpreters (as a race - not as individuals).

And Ralphie's date of 1890 fits with the start of that process. Before that people had to make their own entertainment, after that time ready made entertainment began to become more widely available. It did not all happen at once and in the cities there was the music hall before that, but the inventions that led to the electronic media started to be made at about that time.

Mind you, Jim, you strike me as a modern day version of Mrs Hogg at times.