As a young man in pre-WW1 my grandfather worked as a stagehand in the Music Hall. When I knew it the Music Hall was long closed but the building still stood it was across the street from where I caught the bus home each day. My grandfather knew all the words to the popular songs of the period. He could not sing them, of course, after being gassed (twice) in the war. My grandparents had an old, wind up gramophone, which played big circular discs with a large, sharp steel needle. The old songs were played on this in the front parlour. My grandmother would some times sing along to her favourites. One of many which I never really understood then was: 

My old man said "Follow the van, And don't dilly dally on the way".

Off went the van wiv me 'ome packed in it, I followed on wiv me old cock linnet.

But I dillied and dallied, dallied and I dillied Lost me way and don't know where to roam.

Well you can't trust a special like the old time coppers When you can't find your way 'ome 

The song is about a couple who have to do ‘a moonlight flit’ move to a new house because they cannot pay the rent. If you ‘dilly dally’ you linger and an ‘old cock linnet’ is a caged bird much prized for their singing, males especially. These birds were very popular in England and a trade grew catching the birds in the wild. A ‘special’ was a policeman not as well trained as the real ‘coppers’ they were used to bolster the regular police force. They could not be trusted like the regular police to know where your new house might be or keep quiet qbout your need to move in the dark.