Sung by Robert Catt at Warehorne
“A very successful concert was given in the Warehorne board schools on Wednesday evening, the Rev. T. Mayhew presiding”.
Kentish Express, 26th January 1889
‘Four jolly smiths’ began life as a poem by James Rockcliffe, and appeared in The Camp of the Hallamshires, and Other Poems, published in 1865 by Pawson and Brailsford, Sheffield. As a song, it was published as sheet music by Hutchings & Romer (undated, but the National Library of Australia suggests between 1877 and 1890) with the lyrics credited to J. Louis Rockliffe, and music by Henry T. Leslie. It was billed as “a right jovial song”, and “sung by Mr. Green”. The front cover of the sheet music can be viewed on the Victoria & Albert Museum website. A four-part harmony arrangement of the song was included in Novello’s Part-Song Book (Second Series).
The song has not been collected from oral tradition, but there were broadside printings – the Roud Index lists one broadside in the Bodleian Library collection, and one published by the Poet’s Box, Glasgow. The latter is dated 9th May 1875.
Via the Internet Archive you can hear the song being sung on a 78rpm record by Robert Howe, on the Parlophone label.
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