As I went lum'rin' down de street, down de street,
A 'ansom gal I chanc'd to meet, oh, she was fair to view.
Buffalo gals, can't ye come out to-night, come out to-night,
come out to-night;
Buffalo gals, can't ye come out to-night, and dance by the
light of the moon.

We find some interesting musical references and memories in
the novelist's letters. Writing to Wilkie Collins in reference
to his proposed sea voyage, he quotes Campbell's lines from
'Ye Mariners of England':

As I sweep
Through the deep
When the stormy winds do blow.

There are other references to this song in the novels. I have
pointed out elsewhere that the last line also belongs to a
seventeenth-century song.

Writing to Mark Lemon (June, 1849) he gives an amusing parody of

Lesbia hath a beaming eye,

beginning

Lemon is a little hipped.

In a letter to Maclise he says: