[Note 618.1] "A SHORT farewell to smoke and noise" :- London's population was one million at the time of the first census in 1801 and it more than doubled by the second census in 1851. [Ref: Old Bailey on Line https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/London-life19th.jsp]. The noisiness of London streets was a common source of complaints made by middle and upper class Londoners. The concomitant increase in use of coal as both domestic and industrial fuel resulted in the smogs for which London became notorious.
gloss "fish fags In English public schools, a junior who performs certain duties for a senior.
gloss railers" :- Meaning unknown To mill about, go to and fro; to wander, roam although the latest date for this meaning cited by the OED is 1567
[Note 618.2] "Around sweet crowded Billingsgate" :- Billingsgate wharf was close to Lower Thames Street. Boats delivered fish to this small inlet of the Thames and business was conducted on the quayside.
gloss Hollo: a call to excite attention [OED]
gloss "Cup mate" :- Cup: meaning not known
[Note 618.3] The London Engineer was built in 1818 for the Margate Steam Packet Company. she was unusual in having her paddle wheels inboard as shown below.
[Note 618.4] The first of three ships called Eclipse was built in 1816 and was in service for the same company until 1823 [ref Dix, F Royal river Highway, A history of the passenger boats and services on the river Thames.p 237and 247].
[Note 618.5] Mogg's Table of the new Watermen's Fares, published in 1828 cites a rate of one shilling per half hour for 6 customers. [ref: Regency Reader website http://www.regrom.com/2017/03/08/regency-travel-wherries-on-the-thames/] suggesting the waterman in the song is asking an exorbitant rate.
gloss "lawk" :- lawks-a-mercy; Lord have mercy [OED]
gloss - Dun(1): One who duns; an importunate creditor, or an agent employed to collect debts [OED]
[Note 618.6] "Mr Smelt" :- A smelt is a fish; hence Mr Smelt is a fishmonger.
gloss Grig A grasshopper or cricket [OED]
a pickle a difficult situation. [CPB]
a pucker A state of agitation, excitement, or haste; a fluster, a fuss [OED]
[Note 618.7] Fires were all too frequent in wooden paddle steamers. It was very unusual for anybody, even a sailor, to be able to swim at this time.
[Note 618.8] "you would think nothing of being blow'd up now and then " :- Blowed up - to be the object of anger; to be admonished fiercely
gloss hanging in chains " :- Those who had been sentenced to death by Admiralty courts were executed at Execution Dock. In the cases of the most notorious offenders, the Admiralty would order that their bodies were to be tarred and hung in chains at either Cuckold's Point or Blackwall Point.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Execution_Dock
Hulks" :-
[Note 618.9] the hulks moored on the Thames. Many prisoners served their entire sentence on the hulks. In 1798 it was reported that more than 1400 out of a total of almost 1900 people waiting for transportation to Australia were confined on the hulks.
[Note 618.10] Tilbury Fort is on the north, bank of the River Thames and was built to defend London from attack from the sea, particularly during the Spanish (not Danish) Armada. Presumably both are deliberate errors for comic effect.
[Note 618.11] "The sailors quick hoist up a sail" :- This picture shows a Margate steamer "Getting into a Breeze" in 1829
gloss Southdown; a breed of sheep.
[Note 618.12] "my dear, don't you eat too much of the turnips, perhaps you'll be sick-fie, papa, you might say un-well." The habit of avoiding direct reference to bodily functions was becoming established by 1820. The use of "fie" and "lawk" suggests that the trend is being lampooned in this piece.
gloss fie" :- An exclamation expressing, in early use, disgust or indignant reproach. Sometimes more fully fie, for shame! [OED]
[Note 618.13] "I have been up to Richmond in a cutter" :- Dix [op. cit. p26] says rowing boats continued to operate services from London to Richmond for many years after the introduction of steam. He says that he boats were called passage boats and were heavy 'randans' rowed by three men rather than the cutter claimed here. Traditional Thames cutters would fit the description of a randan to an inexpert eye.
bushel: A measure of capacity used for corn, fruit, etc., containing four pecks or eight gallons [OED]
[Note 618.14] "this better than travelling by the coach-allow'd eight minutes to eat your dinner...oh, the devil take all travelling excepting by steam" :- Railway passengers were later to complain about the brevity of the stops made for passengers to eat and drink. (see bar326~Railway Belle). The practice seems to have been inherited from the coaching companies.
gloss "queerish" :- Slightly ill
gloss "daddy Neptune has got his night-cap on " :- The sea is calm. ;
gloss a night cap is a cap worn in bed or with nightclothes. [OED]
Ebenezer Scrooge, from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol wearing his pajamas and nightcap. Illustration by John Leech.
[Note 618.15] "paring of a potatoe" :- a piece of potatoe peeling
[Note 618.16] "you've lost the Reculvers" :- Reculver is a village on the south bank of the Thames estuary about miles east of Margate. (Now largely lost to erosion by the sea) The towers of St Mary's church - sometimes known as Reculver towers - are a distinctive landmark.
[Note 618.17] "they pluck all that's worth having of them and set them flying, and in the course of the season they stand a chance of picking them up again" :- Nicholas Daly says that wearing gull feathers and body parts in hats had begun at least as early as the 1860s. [Daly, N. The Demographic Imagination and the Nineteenth-Century City p168]
[Note 618.18] "only look what a number of genteel people on the pier " :- image Margate from Hazardous Row ,1809; engraved by Joseph C Stadler shows the "pier", bathing machines, and some "genteel people" on the pier. http://www.rareoldprints.com/p/10730
[Note 618.19] "Favourite" :- Favourite was built in 1817. It was owned by Gravesend Steam Packet Company 1817 to 1819 and by the Margate Steam Packet Company from 1820 to c1828 [Dix op. cit.p239]. The text implies that Favourite was visiting Margate when the song was written. If that is true the song can be confidently dated to 1820
[Note 618.20] "Majestic...Victory" :- The Margate Steam Packet Company boat Majestic was built in 1816 and Victory was built in 1818; "Victory" in 1818 [Dix op. cit. p248]
variant A slightly shorter version of the song was printed in the Universal Songster Vol I, pp13-16 in 1834 under the title Margate Steam Packet. (see bar244). The tune given there is the Military Air of the Nightingale. No tune of that name has been found.