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STORIES OF
It" Is very easy to prove t h a t th e words as given by Chappell could not possibly have been written in 1759, for the simple reason that in the second verse the fifth line runs, " But now I'm bound to Brighton camp." Now Brighton was always called by its original name Brighthelmstone until quite 1787, and was not generally known as Brighton till twenty years later. There is a reference to Brighthelmstone camp in 1793, whence the Duke of Clarence writes, according to the newspapers of the day. In J. D. Parry's " Coast of Sussex" there Is, after occasional mention of " Brighton" in 1787-1792, a note of October 4th, 1793, " Camp near Brighton;' after which the name always appears in the extracts as Brighton, when doubtless the new name became general " The Girl I left behind Me," according to tradition, became the parting tune of the British army and navy about the middle of the last century. In one of the regiments then quartered in the South of England there was an Irish bandmaster, who had the not un-common peculiarity of being able to fall in love in ten minutes with any attractive girl he might chance to meet. It never hurt him much, how-ever, for he fell out again as readily as he fell in, and so acquired a new sweetheart in every town the regiment passed through. Whenever
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