Our lodger’s such a nice young man

First Published 1897
Writer/composer Fred Murray & Laurence Barclay Roud RN25889

Music Hall Performers Vesta Victoria
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Smith, Elizabeth; England : Sussex; 1967		 

At our house not long ago a lodger came to stay
At first I felt as if I'd like to drive him right away
But soon he proved himself to be so good and kind
That, like my dear Mamma, I'd quite made up my little mind.

Our lodger's such a nice young man
Such a good young man is he
So good, so kind, to all the family
He's never going to leave us - oh dear no
He's such a good, goody, goody man, Mamma told me so.

He'd made himself at home before he'd been with us a day
He kissed Mamma and all of us, cos Papa was away
Before he goes to work he lights the fires and scrubs the floor
And puts a nice strong cup of tea outside Ma's bedroom door.

At night he makes the beds and does the other little jobs
And if the baby hurts itself he really cries and sobs
On Sunday when Ma's cooking and Papa is at the club
He takes the kids and baths us all inside the washing tub.


We usually go to Margate, in the sea to have a splash
This year Pa said “I'm busy” but I think he had no cash
The lodger took us down instead - Mamma and baby too
And never charged Pa anything - now there's a pal for you.

A hit for Vesta Victoria at the turn-of-the-century remembered by at least one traditional singer 70 years later. It was written for her by Fred Murray and Lawrence Barclay (Barclay was the performer’s uncle).

A recording collected by Ken Stubbs from the singing of Mrs Elizabeth Smith

Mrs Elizabeth Smith. available from VWML

As recorded commercially by Norah Blaney in c1930:

Sources: