Arthur Sullivan into "The Yeomen of the Guard"; he, I believe, heard
it sung by a sailor. His melody bears a certain relationship to ours.
The song requires to be sung by at least two persons, a questioner
and the responder.
79. COUNTRY DANCE. This dance tune, called "The Mallard," because
of some silly words that go to it relative to the gobbling up of a
mallard. It begins--
"Oh, what have I ate, and what have I ate?
I have eaten the toe of a mallard.
Toe and toe, nevins and all,
And I have been to ballery allery,
And so good meat was the mallard."
The singer proceeds to eat the foot, then the leg, the thigh, the
rump, the wing, the back, the breast, the neck, the head; and then
the dance was concluded. A Breton version in Luzel, p. 80. I have
written fresh words to the tune.
This tune is in the Dorian mode. As sung by J. Masters, the E was
sharpened in the 3rd bar but flattened on the repetition of the
same phase in the penultimate bar. Mr. Sheppard, when arranging
the song, flattened the E throughout. It must be one thing or the
other. Flattened throughout, it makes a charming melody, but the last
flattened E was probably due to the singer's memory failing him in
the latter part of the air, but serving him at the beginning of the
tune. Mr. Sharp has accordingly retained the E natural throughout.
The opening phrase is similar to the Plain-Song Easter Carol, "_O
Filii et Filiæ_." This was a melody used in French folk-song for the
welcoming in of spring. In fact, a May song. It forced its way into
the service of the Church, and was adopted and used for the Easter
Sequence. See Tiersot, _op. cit._, pp. 361, 391. It is certainly
curious finding the same in Devonshire folk-music. Neither Mr.
Sheppard nor I observed it; it was pointed out by Mr. Sharp.
80. CONSTANT JOHNNY. Words and melody taken down from Roger Luxton.
It was a dialogue, and so Mr. Sheppard had arranged it. Such lover
dialogues are and were very commonly sung in farmhouses. Ravenscroft
gives one in broad Devonshire in his "Brief Discourse," 1614,
entitled, "Hodge Trellindle and his Zweethart Malkyn." Our ballad
seems to be based on "Doubtful Robin and Constant Nanny," _circ._
1680, in the "Roxburgh Ballads."
These dialogue songs between a lover and his lass were very popular.
Addison, in _The Guardian_ of 1713, gives snatches of a West Country
ballad of this kind, and shows how vastly superior it is to the
pastorals of Dresden china shepherds and shepherdesses of Pope and
Philips.
81. THE DUKE'S HUNT. Words and melody taken from James Olver, again
at Stoke Gabriel, again at Mary Tavy, again at Menheniot. This is a
mere cento from a long ballad, entitled "The Fox Chase," narrating a
hunt by Villiers, second Duke of Buckingham, in the reign of Charles
II. It is in the Roxburgh Collection, and was printed by W. Oury,
_circ._ 1650. The ballad is there said to be sung "to an excellent
tune, much in request." We suspect that the melody we give is the
original tune handed down traditionally, and never before published.
Mr. Sharp has noted down the same song and melody from a singer at
East Harptree, Somerset.
82. THE BELL RINGING. Words and air from William George Kerswell, Two
Bridges, Dartmoor; sung also by James Down, blacksmith, Broadwood
Widger. Broadbury Down is the highest ridge of land between Dartmoor
and the Atlantic.
83. A NUTTING WE WILL GO. Taken down from J. Gerrard, an old man,
nearly blind, at Cullyhole, near Chagford, from Robert Hard, and
again at Menheniot, and also from James Parsons. Bunting, in his
"Irish Melodies," 1840, gives the same tune to a fragment of the same
words, and says that he took it down in 1792 from Duncan, a harper.
Duncan remembered a portion of a tune he had heard, perhaps, from
English soldiers, and eked it out with some other tune. Then came
S. Lover, and he took this air from Bunting, and wrote to it "The
Lowbacked Car." But the original melody is found, not only in Devon
and Cornwall, but also in the North, and Mr. Kidson gives it in his
"Traditional Tunes," as "With Henry Hunt we'll go," a song sung in
Manchester in connection with the arrest of Hunt in 1819. To the same
air was set "The Plains of Waterloo." "The Lowbacked Car" has become
popular through its words, and the inartistic quality of a patchwork
tune has been forgiven for their sake.
The words "The Nutgirl" occur on Broadsides by Fortey, Such, etc.
See Ballads collected by Crampton, B.M. (11,621, h), and (1875, b
19); but these are without the chorus. The printed Broadside has lost
somewhat. For Gerard's--
"His voice rang out so clear and stout,
It made the horse-bells ring,"
it gives--
"His voice was so melodious,
It made the valleys ring."
The Broadside ballad consists of fourteen verses, and is very gross.
I have had to considerably tone down the words.
An earlier Broadside by Pitts has the chorus.
The same air was employed for the ballads, "In January last, on
Monday at Morn," for "The Brags of Washington," 1775, for "Calder
Fair," and "To Rodney we will go." It is given in the third edition
of "Scotch, Irish, and Foreign Airs," Glasgow, 1788.
A version is in _Folk-Song Journal_, vol. i. p. 127, as taken down in
Sussex. This version begins--
"And as this brisk young farmer was ploughing up his land,
He called to his horses and bade them gently stand.
He sat himself down a song to begin,
His voice was so melodious, made the valleys to ring.
And as this brisk young damsel was nutting in the wood,
His voice was so melodious, it charmed her as she stood;
She had no longer power in that lonely wood to stay,
And what few nuts she'd got, poor girl, she threw them all away."
84. DOWN BY A RIVER SIDE. Taken down from the singing of James
Townsend, Holne. He had learned it from his grandfather, who had been
parish clerk of Holne for fifty years and died in 1883, over eighty
years old. A version, recovered in Surrey, is given in the _Folk-Song
Journal_, vol. i. p. 204.
85. THE BARLEY RAKINGS. Taken down from Roger Hannaford, Lower
Widdecombe, Dartmoor. The words exist in Broadside versions by Such,
Bingham of Lincoln, Robertson of Wigton, etc. Such's version consists
of six verses, the others of four. Hannaford's verses 2 and 3 were
unlike those of Bingham and Robertson, but resembled 3 and 4 of Such.
He had not 2 and 6 of Such. He had a curious line in verse 2: "They
had a mind to _style_ and play" (the Anglo-Saxon _styllan_, to leap
or dance), not found in the printed copies. As none of these versions
would be tolerable to polite ears, Mr. Sheppard has modified the
words considerably. The melody to which "Barley Rakings" is sung in
other parts of England is wholly different. Ours is probably an early
dance tune, originally in the Mixolydian Mode, which has undergone
modification in oral transmission.
86. A SHIP CAME SAILING OVER THE SEA. This curious song was obtained
by the late Rev. S.M. Walker of Saint Enoder, Cornwall, from a
very old man in his parish, and it was sent me by Miss Octavia L.
Hoare. We heard the same from old Sally Satterley at Huckaby Bridge,
Dartmoor. She was the daughter of an old crippled singing man on the
moor. I have told the story of the way in which she as a young bride
with her husband took possession of a house built all in one day, in
my Dartmoor Idylls, "Jolly Lane Cott." Sally is now dead, and her
house has been rebuilt and vulgarised. One verse, running--
"I put my finger into the bush
Thinking the sweetest rose to find,
I prickt my finger to the bone,
And yet I left the rose behind,"
is found in "The Distressed Virgin," a ballad by Martin Parker,
printed by J. Coles, 1646-74. Parker seems to have taken the lines
into his ballad from one previously existing. Two of the stanzas,
3 and 6, occur in the Scottish song, "Wally, wally up the Bank,"
in "Orpheus Caledonicus," 1733, No. 34; the stanzas 4 and 5 in the
song in "The Scot's Musical Museum," 1787-1803, vi. p. 582. In "The
Wandering Lover's Garland," _circ._ 1730, are two of the verses
worked into another ballad.
We took down the song a third time from William Nichols of
Whitchurch, near Tavistock. It was a song of his grandmother's, who
seventy years ago was hostess of the village inn.
87. THE RAMBLING SAILOR. Words and music from Roger Hannaford. A
hornpipe tune. There are several versions of this on Broadsides.
Originally the song was "The Rambling Soldier," and so appears at
the middle and latter end of the 18th century. Then some poetaster
of Catnach's re-wrote it as "The Rambling Sailor," destroying all
the point and wit of the original, which wit and point were not very
choice. But as in the West, the ditty is set to a hornpipe tune, we
have retained the song as one of a sailor, only modifying the words
where objectionable. The earliest copy of "The Rambling Soldier"
that I have seen was in the possession of Dr. Barrett; a later copy,
_circ._ 1820, by Whiting of Birmingham, Ballads, B.M. (1876, c 2).
"The Rambling Sailor," by Disley, _circ._ 1830, in Ballads collected
by Crampton, B.M. (11,621), vol. viii.
Mr. Sharp has taken this song and air down in N. Devon and Somerset
four or five times, in every case with a flattened 7th in the
Mixolydian mode. Our version is clearly a modernised edition of the
older tune.
88. WILLIE COMBE. This ballad is known throughout the length and
breadth of Cornwall, but it is sometimes mixed up with another, "The
Alternon Volunteer." We have taken it down at least a score of times.
Some of those from whom we have had it are Thomas Morris, parish
clerk of Fowey; J. Libby, coachman at Tredethy, Bodmin; Anthony
Pascoe, Liskeard; and Anne Painter, East Looe.
The incident referred to in the ballad is the accidental shooting of
William Combe or Coome of St. Agnes, at the Revel or Village Feast at
Crantock in 1721. In the parish register at this date is the entry:
"William Coome of St. Agnes, a youth about 20 years of age, who att
the ffeast att this Parish rec'd his death of a shot; buried May
17."
Crantock Feast is on May 16.
There are a good many more verses in the original than are here
given. They have no poetic merit; and the tune is not very original,
but has a certain plaintive sweetness.
89. MIDSUMMER CAROL. Words and tune from William Aggett of Chagford.
A very early and curious melody of the same date as the "May Day
Carol," No. 47; and the words belong to a similar custom. Compare
with this "Lemonday" in our "Garland of Country Songs." Originally
doubtless an Æolian, perhaps a Dorian tune, that has been corrupted
and modernised.
90. THE BLACKBIRD. The melody and words taken down from James Parson,
Roger Hannaford, and John Voysey, labourer, Lew Down.
I re-wrote the ballad for the first edition, but in this I have
restored the original words, only slightly modifying them.
A Broadside version has nine stanzas, and ends--
"So here's a health to the bird in the bush,
Likewise to the linnet and thrush;
For birds of a feather will all flock together,
Let their parents say little or much."
The same ballad in Lyle's Collection, 1827, "From Recollection; air
plaintive and pastoral." A Broadside version of this ballad in nine
stanzas by Williamson of Newcastle. Song and air are given also in
Kidson's "Traditional Tunes," 1891, as taken down in Yorkshire; but
that version of the melody is inferior to ours. A Welsh version of
the tune comes nearer to ours.
91. THE GREEN BED. Taken down from J. Masters. We heard "The
Outlandish Knight" sung to the same melody by Richard Gregory on
Dartmoor. "The Green Bed" exists as a Broadside ballad in six double
verses. Mr. Sheppard has re-written the ballad, and has condensed
the story. The air somewhat resembles "The Girl I left behind me."
See "Philander's Garland," _circ._ 1780, B.M. (11,621, c 4). See
_Folk-Song Journal_, vol. i. p. 48.
92. THE LOYAL LOVER. Words and air from Sally Satterley, Huckaby
Bridge, again from Anne Roberts, Scobbetor, Widdecombe. The words
exist in part in "Collin and Phoebe's Garland," B.M. (11,621, c
5). But this has two verses only. See also _The Lover's Magazine_,
London, 1740, B.M. (11,621, c 26). This air has been harmonised in
the Dorian mode, though as the 6th of the scale is absent, it might
have been treated as an Æolian tune.
93. THE STREAMS OF NANTSIAN. Properly "The Streams of Lovely Nancy."
Taken down by Miss Templer from the singing of harvesters in 1834;
also by us from Matthew Ford, Menheniot; Matthew Baker, Lew Down; and
James Oliver, Launceston. Matthew Baker said that he learned it, when
aged ten, in 1827.
The ballad was printed by Keys of Devonport, _circ._ 1830, with four
verses, of which verse 3 was an importation from another ballad. In
other Broadside versions, the short original, consisting of four
verses only, has been swelled out with scraps from other ballads to
fill available space. Broadsides by Catnach, Whiting of Birmingham,
etc.
94. THE DRUNKEN MAIDENS. Taken down from Edmund Fry, Lydford. This
old ballad is found in "Charming Phillis' Garland," _circ._ 1710. It
is in a Broadside by Crashaw of York, reprinted in Logan's "Pedlar's
Pack," 1869, p. 241. The last verse has had to be modified.
A Breton version, "Merc'hed Caudan," is given by Luzel, ii. 142.
95. TOBACCO IS AN INDIAN WEED. This old and famous song was written,
it is thought, by George Withers, as Mr. Collier found a copy of it
in MS. of the date of James I., with his initials to it. It is found
in "Merry Drollery Complete," 1670, and on a Broadside dated 1672. We
give the tune to which it is sung around Dartmoor and in Cornwall;
this is entirely distinct from that to which it is sung elsewhere, as
printed by Chappell, ii. p. 564, which is the air given by D'Urfey in
his "Pills to Purge Melancholy," 1719, iii. 292. A Somerset version
was sung at the Folk-Song Competition at Frome, 1904. Snatches of the
song are given in "Handy Andy," so that we may assume that it is also
well known among the Irish peasantry; another instance of the way in
which English songs have travelled into Ireland. We took down our
tune from John Potter, Merripit, Postbridge, and from Anne Roberts,
Scobbetor, and H. Westaway, Belstone; also one obtained from an old
man at Newton Abbot, sent to me.
In the original ballad, reprinted in Bell's "Songs and Ballads of the
English Peasantry," there are many more stanzas than we can give here.
96. FAIR SUSAN SLUMBERED. Music taken down from George Cole,
quarryman, Rundlestone, Dartmoor. The words were so utterly worthless
that Mr. Sheppard wrote a fresh copy of verses to the melody. Cole's
first verses ran--
"In yonder grove sat a lovely creature,
Who she is, I do not know;
But I'll go court her for her feature,
Whether she'll answer me Yes or No!
"O maiden I am come a-courting
If your favour I can gain;
If that you will but entertain me,
Then I'm sure I'll call again."
The original words are to be found in "The Vocal Library," London,
1822, No. 1,421: "As a Fair Maid walked."
97. THE FALSE BRIDE. Words and music taken down from old Sally
Satterley.
The earliest copy in print with which I am acquainted is in "The New
Pantheon Concert," 1773, B.M. (11,621, e 6). A re-writing of the
theme is on a Broadside by Such, "When I heard he was married I stood
not alone"; it is No. 592. See also a "Collection of Old Ballads," in
the B.M., vol. i. p. 490, "The Forlorn Lover."
Mr. C. Sharp has obtained a fine air to the same words, and has
published it in "Folk-Songs from Somerset," No. 20.
98. BARLEY STRAW. Taken down from the singing of Mr. G.H. Hurell,
the blind organist at Chagford, as he heard it sung by a carpenter,
William Beare, in 1875. The words were very coarse, consequently
Mr. Sheppard re-wrote the song. The air was used by A.S. Rich,
without its most characteristic passages, for Hunneman's comic "Old
King Cole," pub. _circ._ 1830. Much the same tune is in Akerman's
"Wiltshire Tales," 1853, as a Wiltshire Harvest Home, p. 132.
Harmonised in the Æolian mode, though the seventh of the scale is
absent.
99. DEATH AND THE LADY. This was first sent to me by Captain Hall
Munro, of Ingesdon House, Newton Abbot, as sung by an old man there.
Subsequently we obtained the same from Roger Hannaford. This is quite
different from the "Dialogue of Death and the Lady," found in black
letter Broadsides, and given by Bell in his "Songs of the English
Peasantry," p. 32. The tune to this latter is given by Chappell,
i. p. 167. In Carey's "Musical Century," 1738, is given the air of
"Death and the Lady" as "an old tune." But this melody and ours have
nothing in common.
What is the signification of "branchey tree" in connection with
Death, I am at a loss to say. "Death and the Lady" was one of the
ballads sung by Farmer Williams in "The Vicar of Wakefield."
100. BOTH SEXES GIVE EAR TO MY FANCY. This old song is a favourite
with the peasantry throughout England. The words are printed in
Bell's "Songs of the English Peasantry," p. 231. He says, "We have
had considerable trouble in procuring a copy of the old song, which
used, in former days, to be very popular with aged people resident
in the North of England. It has been long out of print, and handed
down traditionally. By the kindness of Mr. S. Swindells, printer,
Manchester, we have been favoured with an ancient printed copy." In
the original the song consists of ten verses. The earliest copy of
it that I know is in "The Lady's Evening Book of Pleasure," about
1740. It will be found in a collection of garlands made by Mr. J.
Bell about 1812, and called by him "The Eleemosynary Emporium." It
is in the British Museum. The air is found in "Vocal Music, or the
Songster's Companion," 2nd ed., 1772, to the song, "Farewell, Ye
Green Fields and Sweet Groves," p. 92. It was taken into "The Tragedy
of Tragedies, or Tom Thumb," 1734, as the air to "In Hurry, Posthaste
for a Licence," and was attributed to Dr. Arne. In "Die Familie
Mendelssohn," vol. ii., is a scrap of music written down by Felix
Mendelssohn, dated Leipzig, 16th August 1840, which is identical with
the first few bars of this melody. But the earliest form of the air
is in J.S. Bach's "Comic Cantata," where a peasant sings it.
We took the song down from John Rickards, Lamerton, and again from
J. Benney, Menheniot. Mr. Kidson prints a Yorkshire version in his
"Traditional Tunes," 1891. Miss L. Broadwood has noted it down from
the singing of a baker at Cuckfield, Sussex. Dr. Barrett gives our
melody to "The Gallant Hussar," No. 13. We have also taken it down to
this ballad; so has Mr. Sharp in Somerset.
101. I RODE MY LITTLE HORSE. Words and music from Edmund Fry,
Lydford, and again from John Bennett, a labourer at Chagford, and
from John Hunt, a shepherd, Postbridge.
Compare with this the ballad in d'Urfey's "Pills to Purge
Melancholy," named "Jolly Roger Twangdillo," 1719, i. p. 19. A
Broadside copy of the ballad exists, printed by Jennings, of
Waterlane, London, _circ._ 1790.
The same theme is used in a ballad in the Pepysian Collection. See
Ebsworth, "Roxburgh Ballads," vii. 231. Each verse ends--
"I vow I will marry, but I know not when."
102. AMONG THE NEW-MOWN HAY. Bell, in his "Ballads and Songs of the
Peasantry," p. 223, gives this song. He says that it is "a village
version of an incident which occurred in the Cecil family." Tennyson
composed his "Lord of Burleigh" on the same topic. So did Moore his
song, "You remember Helen, the hamlet's pride." But it may well be
questioned whether either of these compositions comes up to the grace
of the little "village version" of the tale.
The ballad, however, is probably earlier than the Cecil marriage, and
refers to some other legendary mésalliance. Henry Cecil, afterwards
Earl and still later first Marquis of Exeter, saw, loved, and
married a farmer's daughter named Sarah Hoggins, at Bolas Magna in
Staffordshire, in 1790, he under the assumed name of John Jones. She
was then aged seventeen, and he aged thirty-seven. Moreover, he was
married at the time to Miss Vernon, a Worcestershire lady, to whom
he had been united in 1776. In 1791, Henry Cecil obtained a divorce
from his wife, Emma Vernon, and then was married in his proper name
to Sarah Hoggins, at St. Mildred's, Bread Street, in the City of
London. Not fully six years later the "Cottage Countess" died; and
after three years the widower espoused a divorcée, sometime wife of
the eighth Duke of Hamilton. Happily no question as to the legitimacy
of the children arose. Henry, the eldest, was not born till 1793. He
died the same year; but his brother, Brownlow, born two years later,
lived to succeed his father in 1804.
These plain facts take away most of the romance of the story of
the "Cottage Countess." Moreover, Henry Cecil did not meet his
Sarah among the new-mown hay. He arrived at Bolas in a chaise in a
snow-storm, late in November 1788, and was lodged for a few nights in
the farm. There he saw Sarah, who with friends was dancing. She was
then only fifteen and a half years old. Cecil left, but returned in
eighteen months and married her, as already said, under an assumed
name, and before he was quit of his first wife. The whole story has
been told in _Chambers's Edinburgh Journal_, part 60 (sixth series),
December 1, 1902.
Melody taken down from James Dingle, Coryton.
103. I'LL BUILD MYSELF A GALLANT SHIP. The words are a cento from
a long ballad. The complete song was taken down from J. Watts,
quarryman, Thrushleton. The entire ballad is in Logan's "Pedlar's
Pack," p. 23. There are several Broadside versions. A Scottish
version in Herd, "Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs," 1776, ii. p.
2. The air to which this is sung in Scotland is that to which Burns
composed "Of a' the airts the wind can blaw." Joyce gives an Irish
version in his "Ancient Irish Music," No. 68. Besides Watts' ballad,
we had the fragment we give to the same air from Richard Cleave,
since dead, at the "Forest Inn," Huckaby Bridge. Never shall I forget
the occasion. Mr. Bussell and I drove across Dartmoor in winter in
a furious gale of wind and rain to Huckaby in quest of an old man
who, we had been informed, was a singer. We found the fellow, but he
yielded nothing, and our long journey would have been fruitless, had
we not caught Richard Cleave and obtained from him this air, which
drive cost me a bronchitis attack that held me a prisoner for six
weeks.
The song is given under the title "The Lowlands of Holland," in the
_Folk-Song Journal_, vol. i. p. 97, as taken down in Sussex.
104. COLLY MY COW. This is a portion of an old ballad in the Roxburgh
Collection, ed. Chappell, iii. p. 601--
"Little Tom Dogget, what doest thou mean,
To kill thy poor Colly now she's so lean?
Sing oh! poor Colly, Colly my cow;
For Colly will give me no more milk now.
Pruh high, pruh hoe, pruh high, pruh hoe,
Pruh, pruh, pruh, pruh, pruh, pruh, pruh, tal-dal daw."
Printed by T. Passinger (1670-86) at the Seven Stars on London
Bridge. The ballad is also found in the Rawlinson Collection and
elsewhere. It was afterwards sung in a shortened form at the concerts
in Marylebone Gardens, and is printed in "The Marylebone Concert,"
N.D.
In the heading to the old ballad we have--
"A country swain of little wit, one day
Did kill his cow, because she went astray."
But it is probable that the song originally turned on a different
theme. On the 9th September 1605, a man was killed by a Protestant
in the Rue de la Harpe, at Paris, for singing the song "De Colas."
This song was composed by a seditious faction, with the intent of
provoking the Huguenots, upon the subject of a cow which had walked
into one of their conventicles during the performance of divine
service. The cow, which belonged to a poor peasant named Colas, was
killed by the Huguenots for her sacrilegious act. Thereupon the
Catholics made a collection in every town and village in France to
raise a sum for the indemnification of Colas. The day after the
murder the singing of the song of "Colas his Cow," was forbidden
under the penalty of the gallows, and it was even dangerous for
anyone to hum the tune in the street ("Concert Room Anecdotes," 1825,
ii. p. 230). The song must have been brought to England and adapted
to English words after the Restoration, and as the story of the
occasion of the killing of the cow was forgotten, it was altered. The
tune is very old, and we had it from an aged woman at Kingsweare,
who sang "The Abbot of Canterbury" to it. But this has its own tune,
given by Chappell, i. p. 348. I have added the final verse.