“My Aunt Jane”

Description

"My Aunt Jane she took me in" and gave me tea from her shop. "She's awful smart" and bakes rings in an apple tart. She "has a bell on the door A white stone step and a clean swept floor, Candy apples, hard green pears, Conversation lozenges"

Notes

Hammond-Belfast: "Probably the best-loved of all Belfast songs." - BS

The practice of baking prizes (such as coins or rings) into cakes is well-attested, even if it is today remembered mostly because J. R. R. Tolkien mentioned it in _Smith of Wooton Major_, but it seems somewhat improbable to find it in the contest of a Belfast tea-shop; how did Aunt Jane afford such thing? - RBW

References

  1. Hammond-Belfast, p. 12, "My Aunt Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
  2. BI, Hamm012

About

Author: unknown
Earliest date: 1978 (Hammond-Belfast)
Keywords: food nonballad
Found in: Ireland