Sin song
Sir: It was his mother whom Ned didn't want them to tell (Competition, 18 July).
A. P. Herbert's poem, 'Don't tell my mother I'm living in sin; for see what it done to me! A song for the Society for the Suppression of Wickedness and Dancing', appeared in Laughing Ann and Other Poems (T. Fisher Unwin 1925).
Poor Ned
Beside a empty barrel Upon an foreign shore
spoke of his degradation following a night at the embassy. Each verse is followed by the well-known chorus:
Don't tell my mother I'm living in sin, Don't let the old folks know:
Don't tell my twin that I breakfast on gin, He'd never surive the blow. Promise you'll keep little Maggie from harm; You'll have to take care with a girl of her charm;
Don't let her know about whisky and 'snow • Don't let her go to them clubs in Soho! But tell the whole world of the ruin you see; This is what comes of a night at the Embassy See what it done for me!'
David Smithers
Ringfield, Knockholt, Kent
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