Thanks, I wonder where the song was between 1894 and 1974? And the old fella didn't do too badly, remembering it after 60 years- it was written in 1954, his memoirs weren't published till 1990 and then in an almost home industry style.

The song itself, as I said, not high poetry, the music hall type that hints at "forbidden" words without actually mentioning them. Just the thing to appeal to a Victorian 14 year old who's just started work. Remember Auntie Vera in the Giles cartoons?