Annotation:Downhill of Life (2)
X:1 T:Downhill of Life [2], The M:3/4 L:1/8 R:Air Q:"Andante Animato" B:David Vinton - "The Masonick Minstrel" (Boston, 1816, pp. 288-289) F:https://archive.org/details/masonickminstrel00vint/page/288/mode/2up Z:AK/Fiddler's Companion K:Eb G>A|B2B2B2|e4 B>G|F2G2A2|G>F E2 B>B|c2e2d2|e2A2 G>A| {G}F4 G>A|B2B2d2 |e4 e>d|c2d2e2|d>c B2 c>c|d3e2f2| {f}e2d2c2|B4 F>F|B2B2A2|G2G2 B2 |e2e2 ^d2|{d}c4 c>c|c3d e2| A2A2G2|GF3B2|B3c _d2|{d}c4 cc|c2d2 e>f |{e}d4B2|e3f g2| f2e2d2|e2e2B2|c2c2c2|d2d2d2|e3f g2|{g}f2e2d2|e2e2||
DOWNHILL OF LIFE [2]. AKA - "In the downhill of life," “Tomorrow; or, The Happy Fellow.” English, Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. "The Downhill of Life" was written by English actor and poet John Collins (1742-1808), of Birmingham, and published in newspapers around the year 1804. It proved popular and appeared on broadsides and in songsters well into the nineteenth century. The first stanza goes:
In the downhill of life, when I find I'm declining,
May my lot no less fortunate be
Than a snug elbow-chair can afford for reclining,
And a cot that o'erlooks the wide sea;
With an ambling pad-pony to pace o'er the lawn,
While I carol away idle sorrow,
And blithe as the lark that each day hails the dawn,
Look' forward with hope for to-morrow.
"The Downhill of Life" was also printed in G.E. Blake's Gentleman's Amusement (Philadelphia, c. 1824, p. 21)
