So, we'll go no more a roving the latter part of it, and sitting up late o' nights--had knocked me up a little. But it is over--and it is now Lent, with all its abstinence and sacred music... Though I did not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the sword wearing out the scabbard,' though I have but just turned the corner of twenty nine." The poem seems to have been suggested in part by the refrain of a Scottish song known as "The Jolly Beggar." The Jolly Beggar was published in Herd's "Scots Songs" in 1776, 41 years before Byron's letter, and goes partially
Jolly Roving Tar so manly, drest all in his sailor's clothes,<br> His cheeks they were like roses, his eyes as black as sloes,<br> His hair hung down in ringlets, but he is gone afar,<br> And my heart lies in the bosom of my jolly, roving Tar.<br> <br> Come all you jolly sailors, and push the boat ashore,<br> That I may see my father's ships and see they are secure,<br> Provisions we have plenty, and lots of grog in store,<br> So drink good health you sailors, to my jolly, roving Tar."<br> <br> She quickly jumped into the boat and merrily left the land,<br> And