FOOTNOTES

"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 dayDid 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.

105.Within A Garden.Taken down from Harry Smith, Two Bridges, Dartmoor. The original words were so poor, and so closely resembled those of "The Broken Token" (No. 44), that Mr. Shepherd wrote fresh words. The original began—

"A fair maid walking in her garden,A brisk young sailor came passing by;And he stepped up to her, thinking to woo her,And said, 'Fair maid, can you fancy I?'"'You seem to talk like some man of honour,Some man of honour, you seem to be;How can you fancy such a poor young woman,Not fit your servant for to be?'"

The ballad is published by Such as "The Young and Single Sailor," No. 126. It is also in "The Vocal Library," London, 1822, p. 525. It was printed on Broadside by Catnach as "The Sailor's Return." We obtained it again from James Parsons.

106.The Bonny Bird.Always sung as "My Bonny Boy." It is the companion song to the "Jolly Goss Hawk" (No.71). Words and melody from Mary Langworthy, Stoke Fleming. We have taken this down from two other singers, but not to the same tune; one J. Doidge, of Chillaton, gave us an air characteristic and good. Miss Broadwood has the song in her "County Songs," pp. 146-7, but to a different melody.

In all the versions taken down from oral recitation, the word is Boy and not Bird, butBirdis the original word. The ballad was printed by J. Coles, 1646-74, and by W. Thackeray, 1660-1680, and is in the Douce Collection of early Broadsides in the Bodleian Library; also in the Pepysian Collection, and is printed by Ebsworth in the Roxburgh Ballads, viii. p. 359.

It was originally sung to "Cupid's Trepan," also called "Up the Green Forest," and "Bonny, Bonny Bird." This air is given by Chappell, ii. p. 557, but this differs from our tune entirely, as also from that given by Miss Broadwood. The ballad has not, as yet, been traced earlier than the reign of Charles II. It begins—

"Once I did love a bonny brave bird,And thought he had been all my own;But he loved another far better than me,And has taken his flight and is flown,Bonny Boys,And has taken his flight and is flown."Up the green forest, and down the green forest,Like one distracted in mind,I hoopt and I hoopt, and I flung up my hood,But my bonny bird I could not find."

A later version is found,circ.1780, in Single Sheet Broadsides, in the British Museum (11,621).

"Cupid's Trepan or Up the Green Forest" was priced in Russell Smith's Catalogue at £1, 11s. 6d.

107.The Lady and Apprentice.Taken down twice, the tune here given is that sung withthese words by Samuel Fone. We got the melody also from Sally Satterley, but with her the words were in confusion. The ballad runs on the same lines, and is almost identical with "The Lady who fell in love with a 'Prentice Boy," printed as a Broadside by Pitts, 1790-1810; also by Harkness of Preston. A copy in the British Museum (1876, d). This ballad begins like that of "Cupid's Garden," which is well known. But the ballad is a mere cooking up by a balladmonger of the earlier theme, and very badly done.

The melody is actually the same as that of "Love's Tale" in our "Garland of Country Song."

108.Paul Jones.Taken down from a good many singers on and around Dartmoor. The melody is in the Mixolydian mode, and is very early and rugged, far older than the period of Paul Jones himself. Mr. C. Sharp says: "In my opinion the tune should perhaps never be harmonised at all. The whole air is cast in the chord of the dominant 7th, and, in the opinion of most authorities, this chord should end the song; but in view of the popular preference for a concord rather than a discord as the concluding harmony, I have ended with the usual cadence."

Paul Jones was the terror of our coasts; he was born near Kirkcudbright in 1747. His real name was John Paul. When the rupture took place between Great Britain and America, he enlisted under the Revolutionary flag, and assumed the name of Paul Jones. His daring disposition, and his knowledge of the British coast, pointed him out as a fitting leader in marauding schemes. Towards the end of 1777 he was actively employed, as commander, in fitting out theRangerprivateer, mounting eighteen guns, and manned with a crew of 150 men. We have not the space for narrating his daring exploits; his life has often been written, and a good notice of him will be found in the "Dictionary of National Biography." The fight described in the ballad took place on September 23, 1779. The body of Paul Jones was removed from Paris, where he died, to America in 1905.

The ballad is found on Broadsides. It is given by Logan in his "Pedlar's Pack," p. 32. Dr. Barrett, in his "English Folk-Songs," No. 33, has the ballad to the tune we have given here to "The Bonny Blue Kerchief," to which Paul Jones is quite unsuited.

109.The Merry Haymakers.This quaint carol-like song was taken down from John Woodrich, who learned it, about 1850, and he says that it was his father's favourite song, also from James Parsons. Neither knew the words in their entirety, but they may be found in "West Country Garlands," B.M. (11,621, b 11), and among the Broadsheets of Pitts, about the beginning of the nineteenth century, beginning "In the merry month of June." The words also in Bell's "Ballads of the English Peasantry," p. 171. Dr. Brushfield of Budleigh Salterton has kindly sent me a MS. copy of the end of the seventeenth century or early in the eighteenth. The words, however, did not fit the tune comfortably, and I was constrained to re-write the song.

"The Merry Haymakers" is in D'Urfey's "Pills," and as a Broadside printed by C.B. (Bates), 1695, was priced in Russell Smith's Catalogue, 1850, at three guineas.

110.In Bibberly Town.The air taken down from John Bennett, Chagford. In Broadsides the place is "Beverley Town," and is entitled "The Beverley Maid and the Tinker," printed by Catnach, B.M. (1876, c 2); as "The Tinker's Frolic," in a Garland in the British Museum, printed by Swindells, Manchester (11,621, b 14); as "The Tinker and Chambermaid," a Broadside by Harkness, Preston (1876, d). It begins—

"In Beverley Town a maid did dwell,A buxom lass, I knew her well.Her age it was just twenty-two,And for a man she had in view."

It is a coarse ballad, and Mr. Sheppard re-wrote it. The first phrase in the melody is apparently a modernised edition of an older one. The rest of the air is ancient, and in the Mixolydian mode.

111.The Marigold.This ballad was first taken down by Davies Gilbert in 1830 from an old man named John Hockin, in his eighty-sixth year, at St. Erth, Cornwall. The melody, which is very early, was, curiously enough, used by William Aggett for Hook's song, "On board the ninety-eight." Hook was born in 1746, and the melody is probably two centuries earlier than his time. There was another Bristol ballad, "The Honour of Bristol, showing how the Angel Gabriel of Bristol fought with three Spanish Ships, who boarded us Seven times, wherein we cleared our Decks, and killed Five hundred of their men, and wounded many more, and made them flye into Cales when we lost but three men, to the Honour of the Angel Gabriel of Bristol," priced in Russell Smith's Catalogue at £2, 12s. 6d.

We have taken down the ballad, "Come all ye worthy Christian men," to this melody, which is in the Dorian mode. A fragment of this latter ballad is given inFolk-Song Journal, vol. i. p. 74, taken down in Sussex, in five verses. We have had it twice: once from J. Dingle, Coryton, and once as learned in 1820 by George Radford, from a blind fiddler at Washfield, near Tiverton, and "pricked down" by H. Pinkney, gardener, Washfield. Mr. Sharp has also met with it in Rackenford, N. Devon. The air in Sussex is not the same.

In "Hakluyt's Voyages," vol. iii. (1600), is an account of "The Voyage of the ship called the Marigold of Mr. Hill of Redrife unto Cape Breton and beyond, to the latitude of 44 degrees and a half, 1593, written by RdFisher, Master Hille's man of Redriffe."

So also Hakluyt mentions "the Marigold 70 tunnes in burthen, furnished with 20 men, whereof ten were mariners," which is stated to have "departed out of Falmouth, the 1st June, 1593," commanded by Richard Strong, "bound for an island within the straights of S. Peter on the backe side of Newfoundland to the S.W. in the lat. of 47 degrees."

In Latimer's 17th century "Annals of Bristol" is mention made of a ship "The Marigold," under the date 1627-8, of seventy tons, owned by Mr. Ellis. It was granted letters of marque to prey upon the enemy's commerce; but no mention is made of Sir Thomas Merrifield. TheRedrifeabove is Redcliffe, Bristol. Bristol was spelledBristowin maps of the city published in 1568 and 1610, but in one of 1671 it is spelled Bristoll.

I have been unable to find Sir Thomas Merrifield in any lists of knights; but before the reign of James I. no official record of knights was kept.

112.Arthur le Bride. Taken down from Sam Fone, Mary Tavy, by Mr. Bussell, in 1892. Sam told us that this was his father's favourite song. He had learned it from his father when he was quite a child, for the elder Fone deserted his family, and was never heard of again. But one day Sam, when aged eighteen, saw a workman standing at a cottage door, talking to someone within, and he had his hand against the door-post, clutching it as he leaned forward. Sam exclaimed: "That's my father's hand!" The man turned about, and without showing his face, walked away. When Sam came from his work in the evening he made enquiries, and ascertained that a stranger had been lodging in the cottage for a few nights, but was gone. He asked the woman of the house about her lodger. "Well," said she, "I don't know his name, nor nothing about him. But he asked me for a tallow candle, and melted it up into his boots." "That was my father. It was a trick of his," said Sam, promptly. And that was the last ever seen of the man.

There was one more verse in the original, omitted to reduce the lengthy ballad to singable proportions.

113.The Keeper.This song was taken down from Peter Sandry, St. Ervan's. He had a bad cold, and could not reach the upper notes. But we got the same tune from Mr. Jas. Ellis, Chaddlehanger, Lamerton, and also from Miss Templer, from the singing of harvesters in 1834; but in both these latter cases to the words of "Green Broom." A copy of the ballad will be found in a "Garland," B.M., 11,621, c 3; but this has a chorus to it—

"Jack my master, sing you well,Very well, with my derry down,With my Down, down, down."

I have been compelled to re-write most of the song, which in the original is very gross. It is certainly an ancient composition.

114.The Queen of Hearts.Sung by a workman engaged on the Burrow-Tor reservoir at Sheepstor, the water supply for Plymouth, 1894. A quaint little song. It has been printed on Broadside by Bachelar, B.M., in vol. vi. p. 110, of several volumes of Broadsides I gave to the B.M. This begins—

"O my poor heart, my poor heart is breakingFor a false young man, or I am mistaking:He is gone to Ireland, for a long time to tarry,Some Irish girl I am afraid he will marry."

This is obviously an addition to fill out space in the Broadside. The ballad has a flavour of the period of Charles II.

115.The Owl.This song occurs in part in King Henry VIII.'s music-book, "Deuteromelia," published in 1609. It was set by Mr. Freeman as a glee in "The Essex Harmony," vol. i. 1767, p. 8. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play, "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," 1635, Old Merrythought trolls out snatches of songs, and amongst others—

"Nose, nose, jolly red nose,And who gave thee this jolly red nose?Cinnamon, ginger, nutmegs, and cloves,And they gave me this jolly red nose."

Mr. Bussell noted down the melody from James Olver, tanner of Launceston, in 1889. Of the words, Olver could not recall the line that follows

"And all the day long the Owl is asleep,"

and I have had to supply what lacked.

I give this song because it is interesting to note the changes that the air has undergone since it was performed as a Three Man's song before King Henry VIII. It will be noticed that Olver has not got all that portion of the song beginning "To whom drink'st thou." Chappell has given "Of all the Birds," in i. p. 75. On the other hand, in "Deuteromelia," only the first verse is given; Olver had three. A re-writing of the song "Of all the Birds on Bush or Tree" in "The Thrush," London, 1830, has two stanzas. The second concerns the lark.

116.My Mother did so before Me.This song is based on the old English ditty "My Father was Born before Me," as may be seen at once by comparing the first few lines—

"I am a lusty, lively ladNow come to one and twenty,My father left me all he had,Both gold and silver plenty."Now he's in grave, I will be brave,The ladies shall adore me,I'll court and kiss, what hurt's in this?My father did so before me."

The first appearance of this ballad is in Thomas Jordan's "London Triumphant," 1672. It was taken by D'Urfey into his "Pills to Purge Melancholy," vol. i., 1699 and 1707. The air appears in the "Dancing Master" as "Jamaca," 4th edition, 1670, and in those subsequent.

The tune we give was taken down to the song from S. Fone by Mr. Sheppard in 1895.

"My Mother did so before Me" occurs without music in "The Nightingale," a song-book published in Edinburgh, 1776, and is given by Logan in his "Pedlar's Pack," 1869, from a chap-book of 1804. It occurs also on a Broadside by Pitts of Seven Dials. It is also in "The Quaver," Lond. 1831. The tune we have taken down is certainly based on the early air as given in the "Dancing Master." It is in Chappell, ii. p. 446.

117.A Week's Work well done.This popular song, relished by married men, was taken down from Richard Hard a little over a month before he died. In the original it is much longer. There are in all eleven verses. The first four are concerned with the happiness of the man previous to his marriage. But I find that most singers begin with the fifth verse.

The ballad is found in "West Country Garlands," datecirc.1760, B.M., 1161, b 11.

It actually begins thus—

"O when that I was a bachelor brave,Enjoying of all that my soul could have;My silver and guineas I then let fly,I cock'd my beaver, and, who but I?"I roved about, and I roved awhile,Till all the ladies did on me smile;From noble lady to country Joan,Both gentle and simple, were all mine own."My rapier it was a Bilboa blade,My coat and waistcoat were overlaidWith silver spangles, so neat and gay,As I were a king in some country play."Besides, I had such a flattering tongue,The ladies laughed whene'er I sung;I had a voice so sweet and fineThat every lady's heart was mine."

118.The Old Man can't keep his Wife at Home.The curious rugged melody was taken down from a very old fiddler named William Andrews, at Sheepstor, by Mr. Bussell. The old fellow did not recall all the words, but remembered the story. According to his account this was a dance tune to which the performers sang in accompaniment to the music and tramp of feet.

I have had to re-compose the ballad from the fragment and the story. It bears a family resemblance to "The Old Couple" given in "The Garland of Country Song," p. 100. In the story the old man locks his wife out. She threatens to drown herself, and throws a stone into the well. The old man, when he hears the splash, descends, opens the door, and goes forth to see whether his wife really has drowned herself. At once she slips in at the open door and locks him out. The story is very ancient. It occurred in the lost Sanscrit book of tales of which Persian and Arabic and Turkish versions exist, and which filtered into Europe through Greek and Latin and Hebrew translations. This story came into Dolopathos and the Seven Wise Masters. The French and Latin versions were made in the 13th century. But the story had already got to Europe through the converted Jew, Peter Alphonsus, who inserted it in his "Disciplina Clericalis," written in 1062. From this it got into some of the versions of the "Gesta Romanorum," and finally into Boccaccio's "Decameron," seventh day, tale 4.

To give the whole story in ballad form would have made the ballad too long; I have therefore reduced it to three verses, and have given it, from the man's point of view, a happier termination.

The tune is clearly a bagpipe air with drone.

119.Sweet, Farewell.Taken down from Samuel Fone, of Mary Tavy, in 1889, the music noted by Mr. Bussell. Fone had forgotten the two last lines of verse 1 and the two first of verse 2. The air is pleasant, but the words are naught.

120.Old Adam, the Poacher.This curious melody was taken down by Mr. Bussell from the fiddling of William Andrews, Sheepstor. We saw the old man a little over a year before his death. He brought out and lent us a collection of MS. violin tunes, but all of these were well-known, old-fashioned dance airs. Then he played to us several not in his book that were traditional at Sheepstor. This was one of them, a dance tune; but he could not recall the words, only he knew that they told of the adventures of "Old Adam, the Poacher." Mr. Sheppard arranged this for "English Minstrelsy," but did not perceive that the first four lines of air have to be repeated to complete the tune; and in taking the melody from the fiddler, one could not detect at first, not knowing the words, where the tune precisely ended. It seems, however, obvious that there is a repeat of the first strain. I wrote the words.

121.Evening Prayer.Some fifty years ago this was the only, or almost the only, prayer used by village children. It was said or chanted far more extensively than the Lord's Prayer. The children had, however, cut down the hymn to one verse. The complete song, as "Prayer of the Week," was obtained from an old woman in the workhouse at Tavistock. Where the passage occurs purporting to come from the Epistles of St. Peter it would be hard to say. The tune, as it stands, is in the Major mode, and is so harmonised. But if the last note were G instead of E♭—as, indeed, it is in the two previous repetitions of the same phrase—the melody would then be in the Phrygian mode. The termination in E♭is probably a modern corruption.

Something very much like this prayer is found throughout Europe. Here is the Quercy version, sung also in Poitou, Gascony, and Brittany—

"Father of habit, our Lord salutes you.He is at the head, He is at the feet;He is now, He is hereafter.On the bed, when I lie,Five angels are me by,Two to head and two to feet,The Mother of God in the midst, whilst I sleep.I need not fear fire and flame and sudden death," etc.

Daymard, "Chansons Populaires," Cahors, 1889. It is probably the "White Paternoster" referred to in "The Miller's Tale," by Chaucer—

"Lord Jhesu Crist, and Seynte Benedight,Bless this hous from every wikkede wight,Fro nyghtesmare werye the witte (white) Pater-noster."

White, in his "Way to the True Church," 1624, insists on "the prodigious ignorance" which he found among his parishioners when he entered on his ministrations. He gives what he calls "The White Paternoster":—

"White Paternoster, Saint Peter's brother,What hast i' th' one hand? White book leaves.What hast i' th' t'other hand? Heaven yate keyes.Open heaven yates, and streike hell yates:And let every crysome child creep to its own mother,White Paternoster, Amen."

This, however, is not the same. But in the Magical Treatise, "Enchiridion Papæ Leonis," Rome, 1660, it runs—

"Petit Pate nôtre blanche que Dieu fit, que Dieu dit, que Dieu mit en Paradis. Au soir me allant coucher je trouve trois anges à mon lit couchés, un aux pieds, deux au chevet, la bonne Vierge Marie au milieu, qui me dit que je me arrette, que rien ne doute."

This was to be recited thrice at eve, thrice in the morning, and it would secure Paradise.

The White Paternoster was proscribed by the Church as superstitious: "Le Tableau de la vida del parfet Crestia," by P. Amilha, 1703, p. 234. See Victor Hugo, "Les Miserables," iv. p. 117.

A form used on the Cornish moors, and repeated by a boy at Alternon, runs—

"Ding dong, the parson's bell,Very well my mother.I shall be buried in the old churchyard,By the side of my dear brother.My coffin shall be black,Two little angels at my back,Two to watch, and two to pray,And two to carry my soul away.When I am dead and in my grave,And all my bones are rotten,Jesus Christ will come againWhen I am quite forgotten."

The boy was taught this by his aunt.

In the "Townley Mysteries," p. 91, the shepherds watching their flocks by night repeat a form of this prayer. See also Ady's "Candle in the Dark," London, 1650, p. 58; also a paper in theArchæologia, xxvii. p. 253, by the Rev. Lancelot Sharpe; and Halliwell's "Nursery Rhymes," No. ccxl.

Songs in the first edition omitted from this are—

The first edition is still kept in stock, so that such persons as desire these ballads, and such others as are retained in this, but treated differently, as duets and quartettes, can obtain them from the publishers.

colophon

PRINTED BY

C.G. RODER,

Limited,

Willesden Junction

London, n.w.

[1]I have given a memoir of this old man in my "Dartmoor Idylls." (Methuen & Co., 1896).

[2]I have told the romantic story of the building of her house in one day, "Jolly Lane Cott" in my "Dartmoor Idylls." The old house has recently been pulled down and replaced by an ugly modern cottage.

[3]The Rev. J. Broadwood, of Lyne, Sussex, printed his collection "for Private Circulation only," in 1843. It was reprinted later, with additions, by Miss L. Broadwood, under the title of "Sussex Songs." (Leonard & Co., Oxford Street.)

[4]May be omitted in singing.

[5]May be omitted in singing.

[6]These verses may be omitted in singing.

[7]These verses may be omitted in singing.

[8]"Aunt" and "Uncle" are titles of reverence given in Cornwall quite irrespective of relationship.

[9]May be omitted in singing.

[10]There is another verse, but it would make the song over long to sing it.Tommy a' Lynn had no watch to put on,So he scooped out a turnip to make himself one;He caught a cricket, and put it within.It's a rare old ticker, said Tommy a' Lynn.

[10]There is another verse, but it would make the song over long to sing it.

Tommy a' Lynn had no watch to put on,So he scooped out a turnip to make himself one;He caught a cricket, and put it within.It's a rare old ticker, said Tommy a' Lynn.

[11]May be omitted in singing.

[12]Verses 6 & 7, and there have been others of like moralising nature were added when the character of the May-Day visit was altered from one of lovers to their sweet-hearts into one of children seeking May-Gifts. Then the 'Kisses three' were changed to 'Pennies one or three.'

[13]All the second part may be omitted.

[14]In singing, these may be omitted.

[15]In singing, these may be omitted.

[16]In singing, these may be omitted.

[17]May be omitted in singing.

[18]Or any other suitable hill.

[19]May be omitted in singing.

[20]May be omitted in singing.

[21]May be omitted in singing.

[22]May be omitted in singing.

[23]May be omitted in singing.

[24]May be omitted in singing.

[25]May be omitted in singing.

[26]May be omitted in singing.

[27]What is meant by the "Branchy Tree" I do not know, but so the words run in all versions.

[28]May be omitted when singing.

[29]May be omitted when singing.

[30]May be omitted in singing.

[31]May be omitted in singing.

[32]Printed on Broadside by Catnach as "Oxford City."

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