Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/268

218 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s.x. MAR is, 1022. following passage in ' Memoirs of an Ex- Minister,' an autobiography by the Earl of Malmesburv (1884), quoted in chap, vi. of 'The Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone,' by the late George W. E. Russell : - Gladstone, who was always fond of music, is now quite enthusiastic about negro melodies, singing them with the greatest spirit and enjoy- ment, never leaving out a verse, and evidently preferring such as Camp town Races. This song was much in vogue in the early sixties, and as " the Grand Old Man " appears to have appreciated it, it may be permissible to give the words : De Camptown ladies sing dis song Doo-dah ! doo-dah ! De Camptown race-track five miles long- Oh ! doo-dah-day ! I came down dah wid my hat cav'd in Doo-dah ! doo-dah ! I go back home wid a pocket full ob tin Oh ! doo-dah-day ! CHORUS. Gwine to run all night ! Gwine to run all day ! I'll bet my money on de bob-tail nag Somebody bet on de bay. De long-tail filly and de big black hoss Doo-dah ! doo-dah ! Dey fly de track and dey both cut across Oh ! doo-dah-day ! De blind hoss sticken in a big bog-hole Doo-dah ! doo-dah ! Can't touch de bottom wid a ten-foot pole Oh ! doo-dah-day ! (Chorus.) Old muley cow came on to de track Doo-dah ! doo-dah ! De bob-tail fling her ober him back Oh ! doo-dah-day ! Den fly along like a railroad car Doo-dah ! doo-dah ! Bunnin' a race wid a shootin' star Oh ! doo-dah-day ! (Chorus.) Other versions and perversions figured in the old penny song sheets, Jbut the above are taken from the " copyright edition " of the song. WILLOTJGHBY MAYCOCK. The correct title of the song mentioned by COLONEL SOUTH AM is ' Camptown Races ; or, Gwine to run all Night.' I enclose a copy of the words [ut supra, with final verse as follows] : See dem flyin' on a ten-mile heat Doo-dah ! doo-dah ! Bound de race-track, den repeat Oh ! doo-dah-day ! I win my money on de bob -tail nag Doo-dah ! doo-dah ! I keep my money in an old tow bag Oh ! doo-dah-day ! (Chorus.) The song was written and composed by S. C. Foster (1826-64), the author of many minstrel songs, amongst them ' Poor Old Joe,' ' Old Folks at Home,' ' Nelly Ely,' ' My Old Kentucky Home,' ' Uncle Ned,' and ' Hard Times come again no more.' F. J. A. ' Camptown Races ' with its haunting refrain, " Doo-dah ! doo-dah-day ! " is among my earliest recollections, as being sung or whistled by everybody from states- men to stable-boys, just about the time of the outbreak of the American Civil War. My remembrance of the first verse is [ut supra]. As is the case with all these " plantation songs " of the immediate ante-bellum period in the United States, a number of different versions can be produced ; and the one nearest to my own recollection is in ' The Scottish Student's Song-book,' published in 1898. How permanent is the memory of the old ditty and how increafirgly divergent the various versions promise to become can be illustrated by the fact that, in an instalment of a serial story, ' If Winter Comes,' by A. J. M. Hutchinson, published in the issue for March, 1921, of Everybody's Magazine, a New York periodical, there is a description of the marching away to the war of a British regiment in the earliest days of the great struggle of 1914, wherein the band, taking them to the station, bur.jt into the Pinks' familiar quickstep: The Camptown races are five miles long Doo-da ! doo-da ! The Camptown races are five miles long Doo-da ! doo-da-day ! Gwine to run all night ! Gwine to run all day! I bet my money on the bob-tail nag Somebody bet on the bay ! ALFRED ROBBINS. The reference in The Evening Standard to " Darktown " probably arose from the issue, in later years, of a series of comic illustrations relating to negro life, under the title ' Darktown,' e.g., the ' Darktown Fire Brigade,' which is the only one I can remember, but there were many others. G. W. YOUNGER. 2, Mecklenburgh Square, W.C.I. [MB. ARCHIBALD SPARKB mentions that the ' Scottish Student's Song-book ' is published by Bayley and Ferguson.] EWEN : COAT OF ARMS (12 S. x. 94, 158). There is no church of Herne in Essex. Herne, or Heron (both names are given in