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STORIES OF
That delightful old ballad, "Sally in our Alley," was written and composed, as every-body knows, by that erratic genius Henry Carey, whose grand-daughter was the mother of the great Edmund Kean. Carey was a most prolific verse-maker and composer, and is said to have been a natural son of George Savile, Marquis of Halifax. He was very popular both as dramatist and musician. Indeed, he was a most extraordinary worker, and was constantly producing new operas and operettas from his fertile brain. Besides a number of plays, too numerous to be given; he wrote that never-to-be-forgotten burlesque, " Chrononhotontho-logos," which he happily described as "The most Tragical Tragedy that ever was Trage-dized by any Company of Tragedians." It was produced with enormous success at the Hay-market Theatre, February 22nd, 1734. In 1713, Carey published a volume of his poems, and later his Songs, Cantatas, Catches, etc. But of all his compositions " Sally m our Alley/' will be ever the most popular (many of his other pieces would well bear resuscitating), and will transmit his fame to all posterity. It is " one of the most striking and original melodies ever written." Carey's account of its origin is as follows: " A shoemaker's apprentice making a
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