Annotation:Batchelor’s Hall
X:1 T:Batchelor’s Hall M:6/8 L:1/8 R:Air B:James Aird – Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5 B:(Glasgow, 1797, No. 16, p. 6) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:D A|ddd fad|c3ee e2 e/f/|gee cA/B/c/A/|ddd (d>ef/)^g/| aee cA/B/c/A/|eee e2 e/d/|cA/B/c/A/ ^GE/F/G/E/|AAA A2A/A/| ddd dAA|FD/E/F/G/ A2 A/A/|BBB gee|dce a2 a/g/| fdd cAA|daa a2 a/g/|fdd cA/B/c/A/|ddd d2 f/d/| e2 f/d/ e2 e/f/|ggg/a/ b2 b/g/|fdd cA/B/c/A/|ddd d2||
BATCHELOR'S HALL. Scottish, Air (6/8 time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The song appears in David Sime's Edinburgh Musical Miscellany (1793) and in other, later, period songsters, such as the American Musical Miscellany (1798, pp. 42–44) and Jovial Songster (1805). The lyric begins:
To Batchelors hall we good fellows invite,
To partake of the joys that make up our delight;
We have spirits like fire, and of health such a stock,
That our pulse strikes the seconds as true as a clock.
Did you see us you'd swear, as we mount with a grace,
Did you see us you'd swear, as we mount with a grace;
That Diana had dubb'd some new gods of the chace,
That Diana had dubb'd some new gods of the chace.
Hark away, hark away, all nature looks gay,
And Aurora with smiles ushers in the bright day.
"Batchelor's Hall" was also entered into the large 1840 music manuscript copybook (p. 241) of multi-instrumentalist John Rook, of Waverton, near Wigton, Cumbria.