Annotation:Mind Hussey what you do

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MIND HUSSEY WHAT YOU DO. English, Air (2/4 time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The melody appears in a few publications of the turn of the 19th century: Preston & Son's New and Complete Instructions for the Clarionet (London, c. 1797), and, in America, Norris & Sawyer's Village Fifer (Exeter, N.H., 1807). It was also entered into the large 1840 music manuscript collection of John Rook, of Waverton, near Wigton, Cumbria.

The song "Mind, Hussey, what you do" was performed at Vauxhall Gardens, a London pleasure garden and concert venue, where it was sung by Mrs. Wrighten. The words were printed in John Bent's Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure in August, 1784:

When I was of a tender age,
And in my youthful prime,
My mother oft wou'd in a rage,
Cry, Girl take care in time;
For you are now so forward grown,
The men will you pursue,
And all the day this was her tone,
Mind, Hussey, what you do!

Regardless of her fond advice,
I hasten'd o'er the plain,
Where I was courted in a trice
By each young sylvan swain;
Yet, by the bye, I must declare,
I virtue had in view,
Altho' my mother cry'd, Beware,
Mind, Hussey, what you do!

To Damon, gayest of the green,
I gave my youthful hand,
His blooming face, and comely mien
I could not well withstand;
But strait to church we tript away,
With hearts both firm and true,
Ah! then my mother ceas'd to say,--
Mind, Hussey, what you do!

Ye lasses all attend to me,
And hence this lesson learn,
When to your mind a man you see,
Ne'er look morose or stern:
But take him with a free good will,
Should he have love for you,
Altho' your mother's crying still,
Mind, Hussey, what you do!

The song was also published in a number of period songsters and song collections.

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: John Bent (Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure), vol. 75, August, 1784; p. 103.

Recorded sources:

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