The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1886-08-27
miscellaneous.
YANKEE DOODLE"
Various Versions of the FOmous Songs
Original.

In the centennial Collection of National
Songs" published in 1876, the following &C
count is given of the origin of yankee
Doodle" "ln the summer of 1775 the British
Army, under command of General Aber-
crombie, lay encamped on the east bank of
the Hudson River, II little south of the City
of Albany, awaiting achievements of militia
from the Eastern States, previous to march.
ing upon Tconderoga. During the month of
July these raw lions poured into camp com
pany after company, each man differently
armed, equipped and accoutred from his
neighbors, the whole presenting such an ap-
pearanCe as was never equalled, unless by
the celebrated Army Of Jack Falstatf Their
appearance furnished great amusement to the
British officers. One DR.. Shamburg, an
English Surgeon, composed the tune of
yankee Doodle" and arranged it 10 words
which were gravely dedicated to the new re-
cruits. The original words, which we take
from Farmer and Moore's Historical Colec-
TONS published in 1920, we have not, how
ever, met with before in many years."
With the needful historical corrections that
the attack at Ticonderoga by Abercrombie
took place in 1853, and not ITS. and that
DR.. Shamburg did not compose the tune of
yankee Doodle" the above as quoted is
generally correct Another authority states
that the song originally appeared in Bos-
ton newspaper in 1875, under the title of
THE Yankees Return from Camp" This
version of the famous song appears in the
Historical Collections of New Hampshire
The first verse and chorus of this version are
as follows
Father and went down to camp,
Along with Captain Gooding,
And there NO see the men and hoys,
AS thick as nasty pudding.
Yankee Doodle, keep it up
Yankee Doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step,
And with the girls be handy.
There are fifteen additional verses in this
version of the song. There is mistake
somewhere, for yankee Doodle" in both
words and music, has lineage that dates
farther back than either 1775 or 1885, In an
old newspaper, The Columbian Gazette, pub
lished in Georgetown, D. c., during the ear
lier years of this century, appears letter
from correspondent telling of his having
seen, in the collection of "a gentleman in
Cheltenham, England, called Musical Anti
quites of England" song entitled "Nan-
kee Doodle" one of the verses of which ran
as follows:
Nankee Doodle came to town,
Upon little pony,
With a feather in his hat,
Upon Macaroni.
L he SOuS WAS WTlItcu dlteI Tue IcSlOTaJlOu
of Charles H., and the verse given is sati-
rical aluson to Cromwell's going to Oxford,
on horse, with his single plume fastened to
his hat by a small knot called a "Macaroni."
Watson, in his Occurrences of the Revo-
luton" says: Before the Revolution, un-
der another name, Lydia Fisher Yankee
Doodle was a favorite New England jig, the
custom being to sing it with impromptu
words, such as:
Lydia Locket lost her pocket,
Lydia Fisher found it,
Not bit of money in 1t,
Only binding round 1t,
which, instead of being an impromptu verse,
is part of song from Fay's "Beggar's
OPERA" first performed in 1927. Miss Clay
ton, in her olives of Celebrated Singers" as
serts that from that opera the tune was de-
rived; but the fact is that it was only one of
the many popular airs of the time that were
Incorporated in the opera. During the
Revolution, when arms and ammunition
were carried from Boston into the country
in carts, ostensbly loaded with manure the
British officers adapted the following words
to the tune:
Yankee Doodle came to town,