[Street Ballads: ‘T. BROOKS, Song Publisher’ of Bath.] Handbill with three street ballads (the first two with crude woodcut vignettes): ‘Could you lend my Mother a Saucepan. / Silver Threads among the Gold / Death of Nelson.’

The second of these ballads, 'Silver Threads Among the Gold', by the American Eben Eugene Rextord (1848-1916), was immensely popular on its release in 1873 with music by Hart Peas Danks (1834-1903). The earliest reference to the first ballad, 'Could you lend my mother a saucepan?' is in an 1885 number of 'All the Year Round'. The song is an absolute hoot, but its text is not to be found anywhere on the internet. The presence of the last of the three songs indicates the enduring power of the Nelson story throughout the nineteenth century, and especially in the south-west of England, with its strong naval tradition. There is no record of ‘T. Brooks’ of Bath in the BBTI. For the context (albeit earlier) see Trevor Fawcett’s ‘Bath Commercialis’d’ (2002) and his ‘Georgian Imprints: Printing and Publishing at Bath, 1729-1815’ (2008). 1p, 8vo. Handbill on flimsy wove paper, with wear to edges (not affecting text), and strip of card mount still adhering at head of blank reverse. Headed with the titles of the three ballads, in capitals over four lines, with two lines in different fancy type and two in different working fonts. The three ballads printed in small type, each in its own column, and the first two headed by a small vignette, the first of three men drinking (with bottles and punchbowl) at a table, with a fourth under it; the second of two women fighting over a bottle. ‘Could you lend my mother a Saucepan’ begins: ‘My mother sends her compliments, And hopes that you are well,’. Silver Threads among the Gold’ begins: ‘Darling, I am growing old, / Silver threads among the gold,’. The Death of Nelson’ begins: ‘O’er Nelson’s tomb, with silent grief opprest, | Britannia mourns her hero now at rest,’. The four songs would appear to date from the 1840s. See Image.