MARTIAL MUSIC.

Evening Post, Volume LIX, Issue 11, 13 January 1900, Page 4 (Supplement)

MARTIAL MUSIC.

It has been asked, why does not the Poet Laureate give us a song at the present time? There is an opening for a good poem for publication, but Tommy Atkins prefers to be his own poet. Give him a ringing tune like "Strolling round the Town," and he will put words to it. Not that his officers can't r rite verse. Major Hobday, R.A., wrdte a splendid burlesque, which ran through India from Simla almost to Kurrachee. Colonel Baden-Po-a-cll is responsible (a correspondent writes) for "I ne'er shall forget her, That girl of Valetla. The first time I met her I thought she was prime. But I managed to get a Peep through her faldetta, And thought that I'd better Get out while I'd time." The faldetta is the hood and shawl combined worn by Maltese women, and the story goes that the women of Valella are under a vow to wear it until the expiration of a century from the time their ancestors fell victims to Napoleon's soldiery, a story Maltese ladies indignantly deny. The Grenadier Guards marched on Khartoum singing "A Litllo Bit Off the Top."