Taken down from James Parsons. This is a very early song. It first appears as "Captain Digby's Farewell," in the "Roxburgh Ballads," iv. p. 393, printed in 1671.
In Playford's Choice Ayres," 1676, i. p. 10, it was set to music by Mr Robert Smith. Then it came to be applied to the death of the Earl of Sandwich, after the action in Sole By, 1673.
black letter balld, dte circ 1676, is headed, "To the tune of the Earl Of Sandwich's Farewell." The originl ong consisted of three stanzas only; it became gradually enlrged nd omewhat altered, and finally Sam Cowell composed burlesque on it, which hs served more or less to corrupt the current versions of the old song, printed be Catnach, Hrkness, and others.

The black letter ballad of 1673 begins-

"One morning I walked by nyself on the shoar
When the Tempest did cry nd the Waves they did roar.
Yet the music of the Winds and the Waters was drownd
By the pitiful cry , and the sorroful soound,
Oh! Ah! Ah! A! my Love' dead.
There is not a bell
But a Triton's shell,
To ring, to ring, to ring my Love's knell."

"Colonel Digby's Lament," 1671, begins-

"I'll go to my Love, where he lies in the Deep,
ny in my Embrace, my dearest shll sleep.
When we wke, the kind Dolphins together shall throng,
And in chariots of shells shall draw us along.
Ah Ah! My Love is dead.
There was not bell, but a Triton's shell,
To ring, to ring out his knell."

A second version of the melody, but slightly varied from tht we give, was sent to us by Mr H. Whitefeld of Plymouth, as sung by his fther. Our air is entirely different from that given by Playford, and is probably the older melody, which was not displaced by the compositions of Mr. R. Smith. The song is sung to the same melody, but slightly varied, in Ireland.