Original lines by Dickens. ‘Set to music on the new system,’ probably refers to Hullah's method (c. 1841), or possibly the Tonic Sol-fa (c. 1843), see p. [17].
Oh Landsmen are Folly (H.R.)
Original.
Old Clem (G.E. 12, 15)
A custom prevailed at Chatham of holding a procession on St. Clement's day, and the saint, who was irreverently designated ‘Old Clem,’ was personated by a young smith disguised for the occasion.
Dickens frequently writes a verse in the form of prose, and this is an example. Written out properly, it reads thus:
Hammer boys round—Old Clem,
With a thump and a sound—Old Clem,
Beat it out, beat it out—Old Clem,
With a cluck for the stout—Old Clem,
Blow the fire, blow the fire—Old Clem,
Roaring drier, soaring higher—Old Clem.
Old King Cole (O.C.S. 58, P.P. 36)
The personality of this gentleman has never been settled. Chappell suggests he was ‘Old Cole,’ a cloth-maker of Reading temp. Henry I. Wardle's carol ‘I care not for spring’ (P.P. 36) was adapted to this air, and printed in How's Illustrated Book of British Song.