Annotation:Downhill of Life (2)
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'er looks the wide sea;
With an ambling pad poney 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, to-morrow, to-morrow,
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)
