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BALLAD OPERAS AND BALLADS 39
Of all his songs undoubtedly the most popular, and the one by which he is best known to posterity, is "Sally in our Alley." He himself has given an account of how he came to write this favourite ballad, and relates the circumstances as follows :—
" A shoemaker's prentice, making holiday with his sweetheart, treated her with a sight of Bedlam, the puppet shows, the flying chairs, and all the elegancies of Moorfields, from whence proceeding to the Farthing Pye House, he gave her a collation of buns, cheese-cakes, gammon of bacon, stuffed beef, and bottled ale, through all which scenes the author dodged them. Charmed with the simplicity of their courtship, he drew from what he had witnessed this little sketch of nature, but being then young and obscure, he was very much ridiculed by some of his acquaintances for this performance, which nevertheless made its way into the polite world, and amply recompensed him by the applause of the divine Addison, who was pleased more than once to mention it with approbation."
Another of Carey's claims to fame rests on the supposition that he was the author and composer of our National Anthem "God Save the King." But the question is very much in doubt, and will probably never be conclusively settled. The tune has been said to bear a great resemblance to |
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