Annotation:Ledder Breeches

---

X:1 T:Ledder Breeches M:2/4 L:1/8 R:Air and Reel Q:”Andante” B:Keith’s Flute Instruction Book (Boston, 1847, p. 30) N:Published by Keith’s Music Publishing House. B:Dan Emmett – “Second Series Old Dan Emmit’s Original Banjo Melodies “ (Boston, c. 1844) F:https://www.google.com/books/edition/Keith_s_Flute_Instruction_Book/owtKAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22ledder+breeches%22+%22dan+emmit%22&pg=PA30&printsec=frontcove Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:Gmin d/>c/|BGGG|DG GA/B/|c/B/A/G/ ^F/G/A/B/|c2 d>c|BGGG|DG GA/B/|c/B/A/G/ ^F/G/A/B/| c2d z/ c/|dgg^f |gddc|dgg^f|g2 d>c|dgg^f|gd dd/e/|=fF F/G/A/B/| c2 d>c|BGGG|DG GA/B/|c/B/A/G/ ^F/G/A/B/|c2 d>c|BGGG|DGGg|g>d d>c|B>A G||

---

LEDDER BREECHES. American, Minstrel Air and Tune (2/4 time). G Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "Ledder Breeches" was composed by American songwriter and variety performer Daniel Decatur Emmett (-1904), who is often associated with blackface minstrelsy, and who wrote prolifically for the minstrel stage. His "Ledder Breeches" (a dialect version of the well-known reel "Leather Britches") was a parody on "wikipedia:Brother_Jonathan." The c. 1844 sheet music, published in Second Series, Old Dan Emmit's Original Banjo Melodies[1] (Boston), gives that it was composed by "Old Dan Emmit and dedicated with respect to Alexander Elliott Esq. of Mountvernon Ohio".

0.00

(0 votes)

At the side of the mill on the road to Clonmel, Patty Ackerty kept many sheep in;

Sold pig's meat and bread, kept a nice lodging bed They liked 'round the country he lived in.

Now him and his wife both struggled thro life,

In the week Patty mended the ditches;

And on Sunday he dressed in a coat of his best,

But his pride was his old leather britches.

For twenty-one years it so do appears,

Those britches his father had runned in;

On the day that he died he to his bedside Called Patty his dutiful son in.

Advice then he gave ere he went to his grave,

He bid him take care of his riches;

MB

Song Texts

3086

He said, "It’s no use to step into my shoes,

But I wish you’d pop into my britches."

One night as he lay a-dreaming away,

At the prill-dogs, their frills, and the witches,

He heard an uproar just outside the door,

And he crept to steal on his old britches.

Says Barry McGurke, with a voice like a Turk,

"Come, Patty, come get us some eating."

Says big Andy Moore, "We'll bust open the door,

Por this is the night you’ll be treating,"

0 scarce had he spoke when in the door broke.

They gather'd 'round Patty like leaches;

"By the good martial grog if you don't give us prog, We'll eat you clean out of your britches!”

He took up the waist of his britches with haste,

He cut out the buttons and stitches;

And he cut 'em in stripes, right away they were tripes.

And he boiled them his old leather britches.

They walloped the stuff, says Andy: "It's tough!"

Says Patty, "You're no judge of mutton."

When Barry McGurke on the point of his fork,

He lifted a bid ivory button.

'Twas well then for Pat he had gone out at that.

An* fled when he saw them all risin';

Says Barry, "Make haste, and go for the priest.

By the holy St. Jackstone, I'm Poisoned!"

Por Patty's big joke they got up and broke The table, the bowls and the dishes;

And from that very night they'd knock out your light. If they caught you in old leather britches!