| First Published | 1910 |
| Writer/composer | Worton David and Bert Lee | Roud | RN25285 |
| Music Hall Performers | Ernest Shand |
| Folk performances | Collected from the singing of: Wratten, Bill; England: Sussex; 1960 |
I'm an inoffensive curate, I'm the meekest of the meek, You'll all be pleased to hear that I was 21 last week. We gave a little party just in honour of the day, We had milk and we had bath buns and I'm very pleased to say: We really had a most delightful evening, A lovely evening, a beautiful evening. We really had a most delightful evening, And the vicar called and brought his tiddlywinks! [Spoken: What a night!] Our ladies have a sewing meeting, they meet every week or so I popped in last Thursday just to see them all you know I found them very busy just as busy as bee They were making er … garments which they kindly showed to me We really had a most delightful evening, A sewing evening, a garmentry evening. We really had a most delightful evening, And some were trimmed with lace and some were not! Our spinsters are a charming lot of that I am convinced, I went out with our spinsters, for I love to see them "spinst". We sat down in a hayfield to enjoy the evening breeze, But woe is me I sat upon a hive of busy bees We really had a most delightful evening, A buzzing evening, a busy evening. We really had a most delightful evening, I was stung upon the ... twenty fourth of June
A song remembered by Sussex singer Bill Wratten in the early 1960s – you can hear a recording of him singing it on the Vaughan Williams Memorial library site. It was originally written 50 or so years earlier by the prolific Music Hall songwriters Worton David and Bert Lee. It was a hit for a comedian largely forgotten today, Ernest Shand whose brief biography is given below…
Ernest Shand (1868-1924) was a Yorkshire born comedian, popular in the years immediately preceding the First World War. According to his obituary in the Guardian newspaper:
In his later years he became associated with the part of a curate – one with an unctuous cadence, a pontifical manner, and a considerable command of innuendo. He was not a subtle comedian; his main assets were a good voice, a firmness of enunciation that sent home his points, even to the remotest rows of the gallery, and a confident and rather graceful movement on the stage.
Mr Ernest Shand (Obituary); The Manchester Guardian, 1 December 1924.
Shand was also a talented classical guitarist and wrote numerous pieces for the instrument. It’s been argued that he was the most important classical guitarist of his generation, though sadly he worked at a time when the classical guitar was not particularly popular. His obituaries either seem to imply that he was a talented classical guitarist who was forced to make his living as a music hall comedian or that he was a talented comedian who sadly gave up the stage early too pursue his musical interests…
Here’s Shand recorded in around 1912:
Sources:
- Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A25285
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: transcribed from YouTube recording.
- Sheet Music (not accessed) held by British Library
- Image courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery
Last Updated on March 15, 2022 by John Baxter | Published: March 15, 2022
