Popular Music Of The Olden Time Vol 2

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	734	ENGLISH SONG AND BALLAD MUSIC.

	THE MANCHESTER ANGEL. The poaching song, " When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire," is sung to this tune in the North of England; and the site is then changed from Lincolnshire to Lancashire. A comparison of the two tunes will afford a curious instance of the mode in which airs become corrupted and altered by untutored singers. The construction proves, more than the actual resemblance of notes, that these were originally one air. In each tune, the third phrase (of four bars) is a repetition of the second, and the fourth phrase, of the first. The second and third phrases of both are also nearly the same. The question of priority of date is not easily determined. Among the ballads sung to this air are " The Sandgate Lass's Lament," commencing, " It was a young maiden truly, that liv'd in Sandgate Street," and " The Manchester Angel," commencing—



	The fair maiden falls in love with the soldier who courts her, and the song ends thus :— " I'll go down to some nunnery, and there I'll end my life ; I never will get married—I will not be a wife— But constant and true-hearted for ever I'll remain ; I never will be married—till my soldier comes again."