OOps, the book is Cumbrian Songs and Ballads.

Here's an interesting one from the collection. Regards, John

ENGLISH BEER
Tune; The Low Backed Car

A fig for all your treaties
To flood us with French wine
Our lusty trusty Burton brew'd
Will all their lights outshine
Let fops their foreign liquors
Praise in sentimental drawl
A song we'll troll and a chorus roll
To the monarch of them all.

Chorus •

To jolly English beer
So sparkling, mellow and clear
No wine compares
Though never so rare
With jolly English beer.


Although those prim young maidens
May simper o'er their wine
Just wet the lip with a gentle sip
And a grace almost divine
But what makes them such blooming wives
While others shrink and fail Its due no doubt to native stout
To foaming nut brown ale.

(Chorus)

Should wine fed loons invade us
Their force we need not fear
If we but form to meet the storm
Brigades well armed with beer
Our forts will need no Armstrong gun
Our riflemen no ball
For our lusty foe without a blow
Into our arms would fall
When he saw our

(Chorus)

So Englishmen your home brewed
Defend with hearts and hand
Though pump and vine in force combine
To drive us from our land
If bright Bordeaux and Burgundy
Our ancient foes inspired
It was draughts of good October brewed
Our conquering fathers fired.

(Chorus)

Theme: One which applies today as much as it did when the son was written. Good old English Beer lies in danger of extinction a the hands of the demon French wine allowed in at competitive prices for the first time by William Ewart Gladstone's trade treat Tune: A much travelled offspring of the 'Nutting Girl' theme. The tune was used by ballad writers throughout the British Isles.