OXFORDSHIRE-L Archives

Archiver > OXFORDSHIRE > 1998-10 > 0907532149


From: Paul Betteridge <>
Subject: Re: Blue Pig and Dog Tray
Date: Sun, 04 Oct 1998 21:15:49 +0100


Ginny Crawford wrote:

> Stephen Foster is of course an American composer (think SWANNEE RIVER) - and
> something tells me Old Dog Tray is older than that, somewhere in the mists of
> nursery rhyme origins. Oh, oh - a new inquiry to torment me!

In case anyone wants to know the tune to Old Dog Tray - it was new to me
-
here is a URL with a MIDI file of it which you can download and play

http://acronet.net/~robokopp/usa/olddog.htm

and here is another, more lively version

http://www.geocities.com/Nashville/9958/SCF1853B.MID

The first site has what could be a very useful set of words and tunes
for various traditional songs etc. from Europe and America. Probably one
to bookmark. Just what you need when you just can't recall that tune.

http://acronet.net/~robokopp/folkindx.htm

Old Dog Tray seems to be used in a few places on the Web as an
archetype of a faithful dog - Eve recognised this but I didn't;
is this a common American usage?

Stephanie Jenkins wrote:

> The morn of life is past, and evening comes at last,
> It brings me a dream of a once happy day,
> Of merry forms I've seen upon the village green

It could be England ;-)

Bob Cowley wrote:

> The other long-established pub in the area is the one now known as "The
> Fuggle and Firkin", previously "The Brewhouse", previously "The Bakery and
> Brewhouse", but before the modern obsession for re-branding took over...

Bob (and I) will now have to accept that this sort of branding isn't
modern, since someone seemed to have started in Oxford in 1882, if not
earlier.

Paul Betteridge, Leafield, Oxfordshire

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