Of all the Girls that are so smart
There's none like pretty SALLY,
She is the Darling of my Heart,
And she lives in our Alley.
        (The Ballad of Sally in our Alley, 1-4)

1. The Ballad of Sally in our Alley
2. A Lilliputian Ode on their Majesties Accession
3. The Man-hater, A Song
4. Namby-Pamby: or, A Panegyric on the New Versification
5. The Woman Hater, a Song

Notes on Life and Works

An illegitimate child, possibly of George Savile, marquess of Halifax (1633-95), Henry Carey earned a living as a writer of burlesques, poems, and occasionally music. A protégé of Addison, who liked his "Sally in our Alley," Carey succeeded best when he was most amusing. His "Namy-Pamby," which sends up the childish manners of the poet Ambrose Phillips, is also a valued early historical record of nursery rhymes. Impoverished, Carey died October 4, 1743, 56 years old, at his house in Clerkenwell, hanging himself and leaving behind a wife, Sarah, and four children.

• Aspden, Suzanne. “Carey, Henry (1687-1743).” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Ed. H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004.
• Carey, Henry. Poems on Several Occasions. London: J. Kent, 1713. 1078.g.6 British Library. 2nd edn. 1720. 1076.g.40 British Library. 3rd edn. London: E. Say, 1729. 11632.e.70 British Library
• --. The Poems of Henry Carey. Ed. Frederick T. Wood. London: Scholartis Press, 1920. PR 3339 C23A17 Robarts Library
• Hudson, William Henry. A Quiet Corner in a Library. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1968. PR 99 .H835 St. Michael's College

Biographical information

Given name: Henry
Family name: Carey
Birth date: ca. 26 August 1687
Death date: 5 October 1743
Nationality: English
Family relations
          father: George Savile
Language: English
Literary period: Augustan
Occupation: Musician
Residence: Warner Street, Coldbath Fields, Clerkenwell Green to 1743
Cause of death: Suicide
Buried at: St James's, Clerkenwell
First RPO edition: 2001