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Subject: [LDR] PERCHANCE YOUR ANCESTORS CAME VIA THE DELAWARE RIVER
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2003 21:41:23 EDT

Subj: [NewCastle] "When First I Came to the Delaware Shore" ditty
Date: 6/15/2003 1:11:14 PM Central Daylight Time
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For music, let's begin right here in Arden (DE), with Frank Stephens'
Grubb's Corner, to Gilbert & Sullivan melodies. Can you resist lifting your voices
in song to "When First I Came to the Delaware Shore," to the tune of "The
Ruler of the Queen's Navy" from HMS Pinafore?


When first I came to the Delaware shore,
It was some weeks ahead of Lord Baltimore,
And I floundered over moor and fen
Some days ahead of William Penn.

I cut my schedule down so fine
That I reached the banks of the Brandywine
Some half an hour or so I claim,
Before these folks from Holland came.

By dropping my kit and hustling quick
I was first to get to Naaman's Creek,
And just ahead of Dutch and Quakers
Mandated some five thousand acres.

And here secure from war's alarms,
I'll stake out hundred acre farms.
I'll rent them fair, as man to man,
And farm the farmers as I can.

And then when Wilmington grows great
We'll make some booms in real estate,
And all by landlord's law will be
For me and my posterity.

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