{"id":27128,"date":"2025-05-19T14:27:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T14:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=27128"},"modified":"2025-05-19T22:34:51","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T22:34:51","slug":"the-bell-goes-a-ringing-for-sa-i-rah","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/the-bell-goes-a-ringing-for-sa-i-rah\/","title":{"rendered":"The bell goes a ringing for Sa-i-rah"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td><\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1868<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Writer\/composer<\/td>GW Hunt<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN13656<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Kate Santley<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Pardon, Walter ; England : Norfolk : 1987<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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From  The Velocipede Belle Songster<\/a> (1968)

 If you please, you see I\u2019m a domestic,
Or what some would call \u201cservant gal;\u201d
My missis she calls me Sai-rah,
But father for short calls me \u201c Sal;\u201d
I\u2019m general slave round the corner,
My wages is small, you'll agree;
I\u2019m slaving from morning till midnight,
And I finds my own sugar and tea,

Spoken: And if I only sits down a minute to take breath \u2014

The bell goes \u2018a-ringing for Sai-rah, Sai-rah, Sai-rah,
The bell goes a-ringing for Sai-rah,
From morning until night.<\/em>

My master\u2019s a clerk in the city,
At six hundred fifty a year:
They comes out like a dook and a duchess,
How they does it to some\u2019s not quite clear ;
They give parties and hold up their heads,
As though they was the first of th\u00e9 land:
Sometimes I\u2019ve to wait for my wages,
Whilst they get a-doing the grand.

Spoken: But people as do the grand very often, \u201cdo\u201d somebody else at the same time; the butcher's asked for his bill for the last six months, and if she hears me a-talking to him, oh! you should hear \u2014 (CHORUS)

My missis talks of her connections,
Says her grandfather\u2019s pa was a judge;
Lady Muff and Lord Puff are her cousins,
But \u2019tween us and the bed-post, it\u2019s \u201cfudge;\u201d 
She says her blood\u2019s \u201charistocratic,\u201d
(About that I can\u2019t speak, to be sure,)
But folks for their money come knocking,
And vow they won\u2019t come any more.

Spoken: Yes, first I've to go to the door, then I've to go up four pair to make the beds, and, of course, just as I\u2019m in the middle of \u2019em \u2014 (CHORUS)

There\u2019s but one day I\u2019ve five minutes quiet,
That\u2019s Sundays,. for then, when I can,
I goes out after tea for an hour,
And \u2019scorted by my young man;
You must know, if you please, he\u2019s a sojer,
And he vows he\u2019s entirely mine;
I often wish there was four Sundays a week,
For I has<\/em> to be in by nine.

Spoken; Yes, and if I don\u2019t show myself as the clock strikes, oh \u2014 (CHORUS)

I'm lady\u2019s maid, housemaid and cook,
I do every thing \u2014 honor, no joking,
I scarcely. have time to draw breath,
For she'll ring if the fire wants poking;
With a book out of lib\u2019ry she\u2019ll loll
On the couch, in an indolent manner,
Or else for a change she'll sit down,
And thump away on the pianner<\/em>.

Spoken: Yes, we've got a pianner, \u2019tisn\u2019t paid for; but I must
be off, for if she fancies I'm here, a-talking to you \u2014
(CHORUS)
<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
A hit song from the British Halls of the 1860s, with words and music by written by GW Hunt<\/a> . It was popularised in the British Halls Kate Santley (1837-1923) and was also very popular in the USA were it appeared in several songsters (often wrongly attributed to CW Hunt). The text below is a review of Santley performing it in 1867.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>
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Monday Popular Concerts in The Dome (Brighton Pavillion)<\/em><\/strong> …. In the first place we had Miss Kate Santley,  the serio-comic vocalist and dancer from the Oxford Music Hall London, who sang a comic effusion, <\/em>The bell goes a-ringing for Sarah, with so much humour, and with an abandon that delighted the audience, and rapturous encore was the result. She was equally successful comic song, The Order of the Garter,\u201d which she displayed her dancing capabilities<\/em>. (Brighton Gazette\u00a0–\u00a007 Nov 1867).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The song was published as sheet music around a year later:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Illustrated London News – 03 Oct 1868<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n