Annotation:There was an old fellow at Waltham Cross
X:1 T:There was an Old Fellow at Waltham Cross L:1/8 M:6/8 S:Chappell – Popular Music of the Olden Time (1859) Z:AK/Fiddler’s Companion K:F c|A>GF F>GF|A2B c2d|B>AG G>AG|B2c d2c|c>dc c>dc|c>de f2A| B>cB B>AG|AAB c2c|F>GF A2A|G>AG B2B|AcF B2A|GFE F2||
THERE WAS AN OLD FELLOW AT WALTHAM CROSS. AKA and see "Taunton Dean." English, Air (6/8 time). F Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. Chappell (1859) states this song is quoted as an old song in The Jovial Crew, Brome's play staged in 1641 at the Cock pit, in Drury Lane. The music antiquarian may well have been referring to the popular and long-lived "circular" or "endless" tune called "Oft have I ridden upon my Grey Nag" in Thomas Ravencroft's Pammelia (London, 1609, p. 30), which would date it probably to the 16th century. Brome's play proved exceedingly popular and songs from it were reproduced for more than a century. "Waltham Cross," for example, can be found in John Hilton's Catch that Catch Can (1652), N.D.'s "An Antidote against Melancholy" (l66l), and J.P. 's "Antidote" (1669). Ninety years later The Jovial Crew was turned into a ballad opera, and this song was retained, although with the name "Taunton Dean."
There was an old fellow at Waltham Cross,
Who merrily sung when he liv’d by the loss,
He never was heard to sight with hey ho!
But sent it out with a heigh trolly lo!
He cheer’d up his heart when his goods went to wrack,
With a hem, boys, hem, And a cup of good sack.
Branches of the tune can be found in the derivative country dance "Dargason" and its variant "Irish Washerwoman (1)", while another branch became the Williamite marching anthem "Lillibulero" (part of which is described in the last four measures of "Walth.m Cross").
