The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173880 Message #4217213
Posted By: Robert B. Waltz
14-Feb-25 - 03:18 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Here's to Good Old Beer, Drink It Down
Subject: RE: Origins: Here's to Good Old Beer, Drink It Down
Lighter wrote: The earliest mention, of the title alone, is in an 1866 issue of (ironically) "The Harvard Advocate." The words and tune appear in "Carmina Yalensia" (1867).
We can beat that for earliest date on the Internet. The Campfire Songster cited by Silber is available here:
"Drink It Down" is on page 61. That version reads "Here's success to Port, drink it down.... Here's success to Port, For it warms the heart for sport...."