King Pharim


See The Carnal and the Crane [Child 55] (File: C055)

King Shall Enjoy His Own Again, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer claims he can forsee the future as well as Booker: "all things will be well When the king shall enjoy his own again"; else "the times will never mend, ... the wars will never cease, ... rejoice will never I again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1745 (Denis Hempson, according to Bunting)
KEYWORDS: royalty nonballad political Jacobites
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hogg1 1, "The King Shall Enjoy His Own Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. When the King Enjoys His Own Again (tune) and references there
NOTES: Hogg1: "What Booker doth prognosticate" refers to a man of Charles I's time who "went about prognosticating the downfall of the king and popery, which were terms synonymous at that day." [A slightly exaggerated statement, since Charles I was a genuine Anglican. But he was a very high-church Anglican. The downfall of Charles I meant that religious services got rid of a lot of ritual and costume and repetition and flummery. - RBW]
Hogg1: "It is with particular pleasure that I am enabled to restore to the public the original words of the most famous and most popular air ever heard of in this country; although, at the same time, it must be confessed, that it does not appear to have been originally a Scottish air, though many a Scottish ditty has been made to it.... It was invented at first to support the declining cause of the royal martyr, Charles I.; and served afterwards, with more success, to keep up the spirits of the cavaliers, and promote the restoration of his son; an event it was employed to celebrate all over the kingdom.... [The lines,] 'Full forty years this royal crown Has been his father's and his own.' ... fixes the date of the song to 1643...." [James VI and I, the first Stuart king of England and the father of Charles I, succeeded Elizabeth I on the English throne in 1603. - RBW]
Of the harper Denis Hempson, "[in] his second trip to Scotland, in the year 1745 ... being at Edinburgh when Charley the Pretender was there, he was called into the great hall to play ... the tune called for was, 'The king shall enjoy his own again:' he sung here part of the words following: 'I hope to see the day When Whigs shall run away, And the king shall enjoy his own again.'" (source: Edward Bunting, The Ancient Music of Ireland (Mineola, 2000 (reprint of 1840 Dublin edition)), p. 75.) The words quoted by Bunting are not part of Hogg's "original" text, but the pattern matches Hogg's text. As Hogg points out the song had many versions; the air "appears to have had an influence on the popular mind quite unequalled by any thing of the kind ever before known. Nothing can be a better proof of this than the strenuous endeavors of the Whigs to enlist it on their own side," and he follows with a Whig version (p. 156).
The following note from Kate Van Winkle Keller, partner in The Colonial Music Institute, is quoted with her permission.
"You'll find the early history of this tune in Simpson's British Broadside Ballad & its Music [(New Brunswick, 1966)], 764-768. It was heavily used in the 1680s and 90s for political songs in England and faded out by the 1720s. It did persist here and there into the early 19th century and was revived in the 20th century as a candidate for the supposed "World Turned upside Down" tune beat by the British drums after Yorktown. It has been heavily reprinted in reenactor's books and is played by revival fife and drum corps.
I find Hogg's claim a bit on the extreme side, thinking about all the other beautiful Scots song that abound in songbooks of the 1745-1800 period, many of them with Jacobite leanings." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Hogg1001

King Solomon's Temple


See The Building of Solomon's Temple [Laws Q39] (File: LQ39)

King Stephen Was a Worthy Peer


See The Old Cloak (File: OBB170)

King Takes the Queen, The


DESCRIPTION: "The King will take the Queen, But the Queen will take the knave, And since we're in good company, More liquor let us have. Here's to you, Tom Brown, and to you me jolly soul." As cards take cards, so each reminds the singer of a happy life
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1839 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.25(96))
KEYWORDS: drink cards nonballad game
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North,South),Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Kennedy 283, "Tam Broon" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan3 571, "Tam Broon" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 64-66, "Tam Brown" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 232, "Tom Brown" (1 text)
Roud #884
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.25(96), "Tom Brown" ("The deuce take the cards, for they give me the gripes"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838
LOCSinging, sb40522a, "Tom Brown" ("The King will take the Queen"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1860
ALTERNATE TITLES:
With All My Heart
The Card Song
The Cards
The Two Beats the One
NOTES: Tunney-StoneFiddle has the song in a Mummers' Play.
Broadside LOCSinging sb40522a: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: FSWB232

King William and the Keeper


DESCRIPTION: King William disguises himself as a poacher. He's caught by the keepers, who tell him no one may hunt this ground without leave of King William. He attempts to bribe the keepers, but they refuse (and beat him). He reveals himself and praises their loyalty
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1676 (broadside)
KEYWORDS: virtue crime poaching hunting royalty money disguise
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1688-1702 - Reign of William III
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacSeegTrav 116, "King William and the Keeper" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" [Child 151] (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Suit of Russet Grey
The Loyal Forester or Royal Pastime
NOTES: [MacColl and Seeger write,] "Following the return of William III from his Irish campaigns, London balladmongers would appear to have been fully employed in creating an acceptable popular image for Ebsworth's 'saturnine' monarch. Old tales and ballads were refurbished with William represented as a roistering updated Prince Hal, consorting with sailors, farmers, shepherds and foresters." One hopes he carried adequate identification. - PJS
Few such songs seem to have survived in tradition, for which we should perhaps be thankful. I wonder how many merged with the songs allegedly about James V of Scotland?
Incidentally, there is little evidence that William III had any such "popular" tastes. - RBW
File: McCST116

King William was King James's Son


DESCRIPTION: "King William was King James's Son, Upon the royal race he run, Upon his breast he wore a star, (That points the way to the ocean far)." "Now this couple are married together... You must be kind, you must be good, And help your wife in kindling wood."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1903 (Newell)
KEYWORDS: nonballad playparty royalty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)) US(NE,So) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1571, "King William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 543, "King William was King James's Son" (15 texts, mostly short, 2 tunes; the "C" and "D" texts might be "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow")
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 402-403, "King William Was King James's Son" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 543A)
Hudson 142, pp. 289-290, "King William" (1 text plus mention of at least five others)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 263-264, "See This Pretty Little Girl of Mine" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. ,188-189 "King William Was King George's Son" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 181-182, "The White Cockade" (1 text, translated from the Gaelic with some lines surely inspired by this; the rest is not the usual "White Cockade." I rather suspect two-way translation)
ST R543 (Full)
Roud #4203
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Oats and Beans and Barley Grow" (floating lyrics)
cf. "The White Cockade"
NOTES: Norm Cohen says succinctly of the Randolph version, "The title of the song is not true."
To clarify: There are no specific references in this song to which king is meant, but there has never been an actual case, in England or Scotland (or any other country, to my knowledge) of a King William who was the son of a King James. The closest thing to a parallel would be William III and Mary II; William III was the nephew, son-in-law, and deposer of James II.
Paul Stamler recalls a song "King William was King George's Son," and of course this is the title in Flanders/Brown; Newell also lists this as a variant reading. This is more possible (King William IV, reigned 1830-1837, was the song of George the III and the younger brother of George IV) -- but William IV was a dissolute, childless king who would hardly inspire a song.
Another known combination of father and son is the song is King Charles son of James (possible for James I and Charles I).
Gomme has two texts with William son of David; England never had a King David. Scotland did, but neither was succeeded by a William. David II Bruce died without legitimate offspring. David I was succeeded by his grandson Malcolm IV "the Maiden." When Malcolm died, he was succeeded by his brother William the Lion. This is therefore the closest example of a William-and-David in British history.
It has been claimed that this is a war recruiting song, but of Randolph's fifteen versions, only one (H, "This old slouch hat you must put on To follow the man with the fife and drum") supports this conclusion, and while Newell's text #177 gives hints of a soldier's life, it's directed to a young woman! The Flanders/Brown version appears to be just a singing game.
Newell tied his first text (#27) to the Swedish tale of Folke Algotson, but if so, there has been a lot of evolution along the way. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: R543

King William's Son


See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood, The [Child 151]


DESCRIPTION: King Richard, impressed by Robin's reputation, seeks him. Disguised as an abbot who is the king's messenger, he hears Robin's declarations of loyalty to king and of spite to clergy. Well treated for the king's sake, he reveals himself and pardons Robin.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1777
KEYWORDS: Robinhood royalty disguise clergy
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1189-1199 - Reign of King Richard I
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 151, "The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood" (1 text)
Roud #3993
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "King William and the Keeper" (theme)
NOTES: Robin Hood is often portrayed as a loyal servant of King Richard I against his vile brother John. However, it should be noted that Richard was a rotten king (especially for England, where he spent only six months of his ten year reign -- and used those six months solely to gather money). Richard was rash, brutal, and often too abrupt in decision-making -- Runciman, p. 75, sums him up as follows, "He was a bad son, a bad husband and a bad king, but a gallant and splendid soldier."
What's more, John never really rebelled against him -- he merely tried to overturn the already rather shaky government Richard had left behind when he went on crusade, from which John probably did not expect Richard to return (Warren, pp. 40-43). To be sure, he tried to keep Richard in bondage when he was captured in Germany (Warren, pp, 43-45), but when Richard returned, John eventually came to Richard and begged forgiveness -- which was granted (Warren, p. 46), as would hardly have been likely had John been a true rebel.
The gimmick of a king in disguise is of course far older than the song itself. In the Bible, King Ahab tried it in the wars with Syria (1 Kings 22:29-37) -- but it didn't work, he ended up being killed by an arrow shot "at a venture," i.e. at random.
In English tradition, we in fact find a story of King Alfred the Great of Wessex sneaking into the Viking camp in the guise of an entertainer to spy out their plans (Hindley, pp. 192-193). This is, however, a late anecdote -- and even if King Alfred would take such a risk, and even if he had the musical skills to pull it off (unlikely), there is the non-trivial problem that Old English and Old Norse, while related, were distinct languages by this time; a Norse army would not be likely to want to hear an English singer.
It is interesting that it is certain that Richard I, the supposed king in this song, definitely did use disguise as he tried to sneak through Germany on his way home from the Crusade (Gillingham, pp. 223-224). I also read, somewhere, a report that, after his return from the Crusade, he disguised himself to recapture Nottingham. The attempt to sneak across Germany was, however, a complete failure; Richard was captured and held for ransom.
The account of Richard's incognito travels may have suggested this song, but it should be noted that Richard I can hardly be the king of the original Robin Hood legend. For background on the legend, including much speculation on which king actually reigned when the legend took its basic shape, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: C151

King's Dochter Lady Jean, The [Child 52]


DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter goes to the wood, where a man meets her and rapes her. After he is through, they exchange names. He is her brother came back from the sea! She stabs herself. She is carried home and dies. When he sees her body, he dies in her arms
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1825 (Motherwell)
KEYWORDS: royalty incest rape suicide
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland(Aber)) US(MA)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Child 52, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (4 texts)
Bronson 52, "The King's Dochter Lady Jean" (5 versions plus 2 in addenda)
GreigDuncan7 1395, "Fair Rosie Ann" (7 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #3, B=#4, C=#5}
DT 52, KINGDAUJ KNGDAU2
Roud #39
RECORDINGS:
Sara Cleveland, "Queen Jane" (on SCleveland01) {Bronson's #1.1 in addenda}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf "The Bonnie Hind" [Child 50] (plot)
cf. "Sheath and Knife" [Child 16] (plot, lyrics)
cf. "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie" [Child 14] (plot)
cf. "Lizie Wan" [Child 51] (theme)
NOTES: On the scientific evidence that brothers and sisters raised apart are particularly likely to fall in love, and some further speculation as to why, see the notes to "Babylon, or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie [Child 14]."
For the links Emily Lyle sees between this ballad and "Tam Lin" [Child 39], see Emily Lyle, Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 123-126, or the brief summary in the notes on "Tam Lin." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C052

King's Land, The


DESCRIPTION: "I'm on the King's land, The King's not at home! The King's gone to Boston, To buy his wife a comb."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Linscott)
KEYWORDS: royalty commerce home playparty
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Linscott, pp. 30-31, "King's Land" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #14049
NOTES: Linscott describes this as being derived from an ancient game, "King of Cantland"; I can't find any records of such a thing. - RBW
File: Lins030

King's Three Questions, The


See King John and the Bishop [Child 45] (File: C045)

Kingdom Coming (The Year of Jubilo)


DESCRIPTION: "Say, darkeys, hab you seen de massa, Wid de muff-stash on his face, Go long the road some time dis mornin' Like he gwine to leab de place?" The slaves exult that the coming of Union soldiers is chasing Master away, leaving them free (and free to rejoice)
AUTHOR: Henry Clay Work
EARLIEST DATE: 1862
KEYWORDS: slave slavery Civilwar freedom
FOUND IN: US(SE,So)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Randolph 230, "The Year of Jubelo" (1 text, 1 tune)
BrownII 232, "Kingdom Coming" (3 texts)
RJackson-19CPop, pp. 106-109, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-CivWar, pp. 92-93, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 114-115, "Kingdom Coming" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenway-AFP, p. 104, "The Year of Jubalo" (1 text)
DT, YRJUBILO*
ST R230 (Full)
Roud #778
RECORDINGS:
Frank Jenkins & his Pilot Mountaineers [Oscar Jenkins, Frank Jenkins, Ernest V. Stoneman], "In the Year of Jubilo" (Conqueror, unissued, 1929)
Chubby Parker, "The Year of Jublio" (Conqueror 7897, 1931)
Pete Seeger, "Kingdom Coming" (on PeteSeeger28)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Babylon Is Falling" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Massa's Gone Away
NOTES: This was (according to some source I have now lost -- perhaps Jackson?) the first song by Henry Clay Work (1832-1884) to be published. Work was a fervent abolitionist; his father had been jailed for his activities with the underground railroad. One day the younger Work showed up at Root and Cady. George F. Root described him as "a quiet and rather solemn-looking young man, poorly clad," but was astonished by the song he brought along.
"Kingdom Coming" was taken up by the Christy Minstrels in 1862, and soon became a runaway bestseller. Work's career was off to a fine start.
In a rather hilarious twist, the polemic War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy (1904?) publishes this as "The Contraband," along with an explanation of how slaves loved their masters! Work's name, naturally, is omitted; it is offered as "A song of Mississippi negros in the Vicksburg campaign."
I have never seen an explanation of how this song originated, but there is an incident which might have played a tangential role, and which happened fairly early. In 1862, in the western theater of the war, Confederate commander Albert Sydney Johnston had played a vast game of bluff, occupying a line in Kentucky and northern Tennessee with forces he knew to be inadequate to the task. After U. S. Grant broke the center of his line by capturing Forts Henry and Donelson, Johnston had no choice but to move the rest of his lines sharply south (Harpers, p. 240). In the process, he had to abandon his main supply base at Nashville (February 24, 1862; CivilWarAlmanac, pp. 86-87). Because Johnston had been told by the local commander that Donelson would hold, he was forced into a surprisingly disorganized retreat (Harpers, pp. 240-241)
When Federal troops entered Nashville, a reporter went to one of the leading hotels and pounded on the door. According to Foote, p. 217, "He kept on ringing, with the persistency of a tired and hungry man within reach of food and a clean bed. At last he was rewarded. A Negro swung the door ajar and stood there smiling broadly. 'Massa done gone souf,' he said, still grinning."
What's more, there *was* "a smoke way up de ribber" at that time. It came from two Confederate gunboats being burned (Foote, p. 216) -- but the civilians could hardly know that, and they *did* know that Federal gunboats had been responsible for the capture of Fort Henry and had attacked (though they had been repelled at) Fort Donelson. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: R230

Kinghorn Ferry


DESCRIPTION: Soldiers take a pedlar through Kinghorn Ferry streets. He says he would be forced to be a soldier in Flanders. The women plead unsuccessfully for his release. They disarm, beat and drive the soldiers to sea and save the pedlar. Sailors laugh.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan2); there is a broadside dated 1701
KEYWORDS: army soldier battle rescue humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #169, p. 1, "Kinghorn Ferry" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 238, "Kinghorn Ferry" (1 text)
Roud #5842
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Ry.III.a.10(009), "The Lasses of Kinghorn" ("All Gentlemen and Cavaliers that doth delight in sport"), unknown, 1701
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Clavers and his Highland Men" (tune, per broadside NLScotland Ry.III.a.10(009))
NOTES: There is a passing reference to King William: the leader of the women, "General" Paterson, says "Had it not been for King William's sake, we'd drowned them [the soldiers] in the Sea." Greig: "'King William' may be William IV. [1830-1837], in which case the ballad would take us back to the Thirties of last [19th] century. But the style of the piece seems older than this, and though it carries us back to the end of the 17th century, I am inclined to think that the Monarch referred to must be William III [1688-1702]. This view gains confirmation from the reference which the packman makes to the wars on the Continent. Further, the heroism of the women and their readiness to handle weapons is in keeping with the spirit of those days as illustrated by many another contemporary ballad."
Eoin Shalloo, Curator, Rare Book Collections, National Library of Scotland, explains the 1701 probable date of publication as follows (quoted with permission): "I think the date 1701 has been assigned to this broadside from a number of reference sources. The Wing Short Title Catalogue (no.466c) gives the date as [1700?] and our working copy of H.G. Aldis, A list of books printed in Scotland before 1700 (ref. 3978.5) also uses the same date. Whoever compiled the entry for the broadside website probably used the date from our online catalogue which came from Wing. Where Wing got the date from I don't know. It is possible from looking at the item that is could have been printed retrospectively 20 or 30 years later, but it would have had more relevance if printed closer to the time of the action." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2238

Kings of Orient


See We Three Kings (Kings of Orient) (File: OBC195)

Kings, The


DESCRIPTION: "A nicht short syne some buirdly [stalwart] chiels [young men] fu' pawky [crafty] o' their braws Forgaithered owre a mutchkin stoup [1/4-pint cask] to straught [straighten] some ancient thraws [twists]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1916 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: royalty drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1874, "The Kings" (1 fragment)
Roud #13580
NOTES: GreigDuncan8 quoting a Charles Murray letter to Duncan: "... I can't remember seeing it in print ever. It begins: Recit[ative].[Text]. The Kings get up one after the other and sing their case to well known tunes. There are about 160 lines...."
The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81874

Kingston Volunteers, The


See James Bird [Laws A5] (File: LA05)

Kinkaiders, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer tells us that the "place I like the best" is "the sand hills, O the sand hills, The place Kinkaiders make their home." He praises the corn, melons, cows, etc., and gives thanks "for the homestead law he made, This noble Moses P. Kinkaid."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1915
KEYWORDS: home farming
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1903-1919 - Term of Congressman Moses P. Kinkaid, who introduced the homestead law which was so widely praised in Nebraska
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Sandburg, pp. 278-279, "The Kinkaiders" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 85, p. 184, "The Kinkaiders" (1 text)
Roud #4982
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree)" (tune) and references there
NOTES: Pound reports, "Moses P. Kinkaid was congressman of the sixth congressional distict [of Nebraska], 1903-1919. He was the introducer of a bill for 640-acre homesteads known as the 'Kinkaid Homestead Law.'"
Also known as the "Kinkaid Home Act," and passed in 1904, the Act applied originally only to unsettled areas of Nebraska, and granted the land in return for five years residence and $800 in improvement. It was extended in 1909.
Given that the song was collected while Kinkaid was still in office, one wonders if this might not be a campaign song. - RBW
File: San278

Kinmont Willie [Child 186]


DESCRIPTION: Kinmont Willie, a notorious raider, comes to the border under a truce, with few men at his back, and is treacherously taken by a large force under Lord Scroop and others. He is imprisoned as a raider, but finally rescued
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: betrayal prison rescue borderballad
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Apr 13, 1596 - Rescue of William Armstrong of Kinmouth (Kinmont Willie) from the castle at Carlisle
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Bronson 186, "Kinmont Willie" (1 version)
Leach, pp. 504-509, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
OBB 137, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
PBB 56, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 116-122+327-328, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 108-114, "Kinmont Willie" (1 text)
DT, KINMWILL
Roud #4013
NOTES: Kinmont Willie was a real person, and he caused a major border incident at a time when James VI of Scotland was really trying to stay on good terms with Elizabeth I of England, since he wanted to succeed her.
According to Roaslin Mitchison, A History of Scotland (second edition), p. 158, "In 1597 [her date; Child's extensive note says 1596] there was the international incident of Kinmont Willie. The English broke Border law by capturing him at a day of truce, and refused from personal animosity to the Scottish Warden, Buccleuch, to hand him back. Buccleuch then rescued him from Carlisle castle. The subsequent outbreak of diplomatic huffiness was resolved by a joing English and Scottish commission."
This was typical of the problems of the time: The governments wanted peace, but the borderers wanted to keep on looting. - RBW
File: C186

Kinsale versus Mallow


DESCRIPTION: The singer's answer to Paddy. "What could bewitch you, to sing ... the praise of Kinsale?" The only commerce of Kinsale is fish. The spa at Mallow beats that at Kinsale. No king would ever have sight of the Kinsale hotel. "I'll stay here in Mallow"
AUTHOR: John Lander (source: Croker-PopularSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1831 (Haly broadside, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
KEYWORDS: commerce fishing humorous nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 218-220, "Kinsale versus Mallow" (1 text)
NOTES: Kinsale and Mallow are in County Cork.
Croker-PopularSongs: "This satirical song ["The Praise of Kinsale"], with the subsequent reply to it ["Kinsale versus Mallow"], are given from a broadside purchased by the Editor in 1831, at the shop of Haly, a ballad printer in Hanover Street, Cork. The were respectively entitled, 'Paddy Farrell, of Kinsale, to his Friend at Mallow;' and 'Answer of Thady Mullowny, of Mallow, to Paddy Farrell, Kinsale.'" - BS
File: CrPS218

Kintey Coy at Samsonville


DESCRIPTION: Tales of Old Abey Kelder's bar. The clientele is reported to have "kintey coyed and raised the devil; I bet they thought their heads was level." The behavior of various bar patrons is briefly described
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1982
KEYWORDS: drink moniker
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
FSCatskills 162, "Kintey Coy at Samsonville" (1 text)
ST FSC162 (Partial)
File: FSC162

Kintyre Love Song, A


DESCRIPTION: "Like the violets in spring, like the lark on the wing... so sweet is she." The singer uses similar imagery to illustrate that "so fair is she," "so kind is she," "so dear is she."
AUTHOR: Words: James Hamish Dall Mactaggart
EARLIEST DATE: 1927 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H195, p. 234, "A Kintyre Love Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9468
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ned of the Hill" (tune)
File: HHH195

Kipawa Stream, The


DESCRIPTION: "I am a roving shantyboy -- the pinewoods is my home, Like every other fellow, from camp to camp I roam." The singer recalls his years of work on the rivers, noting "My muscle is my fortune." He wishes he could have revenge on the Indians
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1966 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: lumbering work logger drink Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke-Lumbering #63, "The Kipawa Stream" (1 text)
Roud #4557
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Manistee River Song"
cf. "Boardman River Song"
NOTES: Although the final stanza of this song seeks revenge on the Indians, the singer gave no reason for wanting such revenge. It may be that this is a leftover from one of the various other versions of this song (see the cross-references). - RBW
File: FowL63

Kirn Song


DESCRIPTION: "Robbie Burns, altho' he be dead ... could handle the ploo"; he enjoyed himself at the harvest celebration. "Some drink to ladies, and some drink to lairds, But here is to the farmers wi' their big corn yards"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming drink party
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 633, "Kirn Song" (1 text)
Roud #6067
File: GrD3633

Kirtle Gaol


See County Jail (II) (File: Mack148)

Kishmul's Galley


See Beinn a' Cheathaich (File: K002)

Kiss in the Morning Early, A


DESCRIPTION: A maid goes to her cobbler "for her kiss in the morning early." They plan to marry. He gives her a fancy pair of shoes. She goes home and tells her father "I've got me a man." He wonders who but guesses it is only the cobbler when he sees the shoes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: courting father clothes
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 75, "A Kiss in the Morning Early" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3807
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "The Shoemaker's Kiss" which is also about relations between a girl and a shoemaker -- but the latter involves a pregnancy, on which basis we split them (at least until I find linking versions). - RBW
File: OLcM075

Kiss Me in the Dark


DESCRIPTION: To save her reputation, Sally tells sailor William she will only kiss him in the dark. The captain hears and goes in William's place. William and Sally marry three months later. She has a baby six months after that. The captain is godfather. Sally smiles
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1852 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.12(271))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage sex pregnancy trick sailor
FOUND IN:
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.12(271), "Kiss Me in the Dark" ("Young William was a sailor a handsome roving boy"), S. Russell (Birmingham), 1840-1851; also Firth c.12(272), Firth b.34(160),2806 c.16(211), "Kiss Me in the Dark"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Irish Molly" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(271))
cf. "The Butcher's Daughter" (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
cf. "Jack the Jolly Tar (I) (Tarry Sailor)" [Laws K40] (theme: sex and disguise by darkness)
File: BrdKMitD

Kiss Me, Oh, I Like It


DESCRIPTION: "One morning rather dark as I strolled through the park, I met with a blushing young maid." They find their way beneath the trees, where she proclaims, "Kiss me, oh, I like it, Kiss me again, it's nice.... You are a dear, and no one is near....."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (recorded from Edith Perrin)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN:
Roud #16398
RECORDINGS:
Edith Perrin, "Kiss Me, Oh, I Like It" [fragment] (on USWarnerColl01)
File: RcKMOILI

Kissing in the Dark


DESCRIPTION: "For lang I courted Jeannie... And whan she cam to see me, I wad kiss her in the dark." One night when she is away, he sneaks in and accidentally kisses her mother. This causes the mother to give consent to their marriage, and her money when she dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: love courting humorous mother nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #102, p. 2, "Kissin' In the Dark" (1 text)
GreigDuncan4 915, "Kissin' In the Dark" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Ord, pp. 97-98, "Kissin' in the Dark" (1 text)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Dark, the Dark
File: Ord097

Kissing Song (I)


DESCRIPTION: The loving young man "hangs all around the cabin door," kissing the girl "for (his/her) mother and her sister and her brother Till her Daddy comes...." Daddy threatens to shoot him; the girl objects. They continue courting much to the old folks' delight
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1931 (Thomas)
KEYWORDS: love courting father family
FOUND IN: US(Ap,So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 374, "A Young Man's Love" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 305-307, "A Young Man's Love" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 374C)
DT, KISSNG
Roud #3642
RECORDINGS:
Chubby Parker, "The Kissing Song" (Conqueror 7891, 1931)
NOTES: According to Cohen, this song was copyrighted by Billy Carter in 1882 as "Kissing on the Sly." - RBW
File: R374

Kissing Song (II -- She Just Kept Kissing On)


DESCRIPTION: "I gave her kisses one, kisses one (x2), I gave her kisses one, And she said 'twas well begun, So we kept kissing on, kissing on." Similarly, "Kisses two... She said that would not do...." and so on, up to perhaps "ten... begin again"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: love courting nonballad
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 313, "Kissing Song" (1 text plus a fragment)
Roud #4388
RECORDINGS:
Kelly Harrell, "She Just Kept Kissing On" (Victor V-40095, 1929; on KHarrell02)
NOTES: The editors of Brown link this with the other "Kissing Song" found in Randolph. This is perverse -- this is a counting song, Randolph's a genuine courting song. - RBW
File: Br3313

Kissing's No Sin (I)


DESCRIPTION: "Some say kissing's a sin, but I think it's nane ava, For kissing has been in the world When there was but only twa." The singer points to all those who have engaged in kissing, noting that it must be lawful if lawyers do it, etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Kinloch-BBook XXIX, pp. 86-88, "The Mautman" (1 text, containing at least a fragment of this)
Roud #2579
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Mautman" (lyrics)
cf. "The Hog-tub" (lyrics)
cf. "The Song of Temptation" (theme of the antiquity of sexual relations)
NOTES: This is, quite simply, a tangle. This consists of two parts: "Some say that kissing's a sin" and "If it wasna lawful...." The former is shared with "The Mautman," which adds a story about a mautman demanding his pay; the latter is shared with "The Hog-tub," which adds a Mother Goose rhyme, "Once I courted a pretty lass." How all these grafts came together I don't know; the combination found in this song seems most logical, but what does that prove? - RBW
File: RcKiNoSi

Kissing's No Sin (II)


See The Mautman (File: KinBB29)

Kitardine


DESCRIPTION: "One night ... Some rambling thoughts came in my mind And caused me for to roam." The singer leaves his girl, takes the train from Kitardine to the lumber camp, and takes a job as a cook. At season's end he signs on to help take the lumber to Bangor.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: courting farewell lumbering
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 42-43, "Kitardine" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12473
NOTES: Dibblee/Dibblee: Kitardine is in Maine. - BS
File: Dib042

Kitchey Coo


See Bill Wiseman (File: Doyl3014)

Kitchey-Coo


See Bill Wiseman (File: Doyl3014)

Kitchie-Boy, The [Child 252]


DESCRIPTION: A lady reveals her love to a kitchen boy. He begs her not to make it known; her father would kill him. She sends him over the sea; he rebuffs a lady's advances. He returns home in disguise and convinces the father to let him marry his daughter
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: love separation nobility servant disguise marriage reunion return
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (5 texts)
Bronson 252, "The Kitchie-Boy" (3 versions)
GreigDuncan5 1048, "The Kitchie Boy" (4 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach, pp. 616-621, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
DBuchan 25, "The Kitchie-Boy" (1 text)
Roud #105
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Matt Hyland" (plot)
cf. "Richie Story" [Child 232] (plot)
cf. "The Prince of Morocco (The Sailor Boy II)" [Laws N18] (plot)
cf. "Hind Horn" [Child 17] (lyrics)
NOTES: Child views this as a "modern 'adaption' of 'King Horn'" (i.e. "Hind Horn," Child 17), from which it derives some stanzas. The plot, however, is by no means identical, sharing elements with a number of other ballads. - RBW
GreigDuncan5 1048C has a connection with "King Horn" not in any of Child's texts: the hero reveals himself by dropping the ring in the lady's wine cup. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C252

Kite Abandoned in White Bay, The


DESCRIPTION: "Come all ye rambling sailor boys And hearken please to me And hear what fishermen endure...." The Kite sets out with the sealing fleet, but her slow speed causes her to be left behind. 22 crew leave her to go home and seek better work
AUTHOR: probably Johnny Burke
EARLIEST DATE: 1978 (Ryan/Small)
KEYWORDS: ship hunting abandonment
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 103, "The 'Kite' Abandoned in White Bay" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)" (tune)
NOTES: This apparently comes from a manuscript with no indication of author, date, or tune. Ryan and Small believe it to be by Johnny Burke. Looking at the form and certain of the words, I think it effectively certain that "The Banks of Newfoundland (II)" was his model. - RBW
File: RySm103

Kitten Is Under the Sod, The


DESCRIPTION: "The kitten is under the sod, the sod, The kitten is under the sod."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Brown)
KEYWORDS: animal burial
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
BrownIII 179, "The Kitten Is Under the Sod" (1 short text)
File: Br3179

Kittie Wells


See Kitty Wells (File: MN2166)

Kitty Alone (I)


See Martin Said To His Man (File: WB022)

Kitty Alone (II)


See The Wife Wrapt in Wether's Skin [Child 277] (File: C277)

Kitty Alone and I


See Kemo Kimo (File: R282)

Kitty Brewster


DESCRIPTION: The singer recalls Kitty Brewster's tavern where you could have her good ale and argue politics at the fireplace in winter. Now she has died and the tavern is gone and so are "the chaps wha ance at Kitty's shrine Pour'd their libations votive"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: death drink nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 554, "Kitty Brewster" (1 text)
Roud #6029
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Kittybrewster (554) is at coordinate (h1,v9) on that map [roughly 2 miles NW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3554

Kitty Cain't You Come Along Too?


See Raccoon (File: R260)

Kitty Clyde


See Katy Cline (File: FSWB149)

Kitty Gray


DESCRIPTION: The singer sees a girl and courts her "For she looked like an angel although she was poor." Her widowed mother consents to the marriage "as by flattery and deception I won Kitty Gray." But when she realizes his deception, she and the baby die
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (Gardner/Chickering)
LONG DESCRIPTION: "One morning as through the village churchyard I did stray," the singer sees a girl and courts her "For she looked like an angel although she was poor." Her widowed mother consents to the marriage "as by flattery and deception I won Kitty Gray." But when she realizes his deception, she and the baby dies
KEYWORDS: love courting beauty death children money trick
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Gardner/Chickering 32, "Kitty Gray" (1 text)
ST GC032 (Partial)
Roud #3692
File: GC032

Kitty Kline


See Katy Cline (File: FSWB149)

Kitty Kline (II)


See Little Birdie (File: R676)

Kitty O'Noory


See Katie Morey [Laws N24] (File: LN24)

Kitty of Coleraine


DESCRIPTION: "As beautiful Kitty one morning was tripping" she sees the singer, stumbles, breaks her pitcher and spills its milk. He comforts her. "She vowed for such pleasure she'd break it again." Soon after not an unbroken pitcher could be found in Coleraine
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1809 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 10(8))
KEYWORDS: sex humorous food
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
O'Conor, p. 44, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
Hayward-Ulster, p. 67, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Kitty of Coleraine" (source notes only)
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), p. 467, "Kitty of Coleraine" (1 text)
Roud #6534
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 10(8), "Kitty of Colerain", Laurie & Whittle (London), 1809; also Firth b.25(262), 2806 c.15(262), 2806 c.17(209), Harding B 28(149), "Kitty of Colerain"; 2806 b.11(176), Firth c.26(216), Harding B 25(1033), Harding B 12(49), "Kitty of Coleraine"; Harding B 28(265), "Kitty of Colerein"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Spotted Cow" (theme)
cf. "Blackberry Grove" (theme)
cf. "Three Maidens to Milking Did Go" (theme)
NOTES: Broadside Bodleian Harding B 10(8) imprint: "Publish'd Apr. 4, 1809, by Laurie & Whittle, 53, Fleet Street, London. Sung with unbounded applause by John Johnstone, Esq of the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, amongst his convivial friends in Ireland." - BS
The editors of Granger's Index to Poetry list this as "wr[ongly] at[tributed] to Charles Dawson Shanley." Hoagland, at least, follows this incorrect attribution (giving Shanley's dates as 1811-1875, which obviously demonstrates why he couldn't have written a song published in 1809), though she admits some doubts. - RBW
File: OCon044B

Kitty Tyrrell


DESCRIPTION: The singer comes to the girl, describing all he has to offer if she will marry. He concludes "Your silence I'll take for consent... Now all that I have is your own. This week you may be Kitty Tyrrell; Next week you'll be Mistress Malone."
AUTHOR: Words: Charles Jefferys / Music: Charles W. Glover (died 1863)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1860 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2430))
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage home
FOUND IN: US(So) Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Randolph 788, "I've Built Me a Neat Little Cot, Darling" (1 text)
O'Conor, p. 12, "Kitty Tyrrell" (1 text)
Roud #7418
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2430), "Kitty Tyrrell", Ryle and Co (London), 1845-1859; also Harding B 11(708), Harding B 18(333), Harding B 11(858), Harding B 11(3976), Harding B 11(2011), "Kitty Tyrrell"; Firth b.26(102), Firth c.26(154), "Kitty Tyrell"; Firth b.25(82), "Kitty Tyrrel"
NOTES: O'Conor attributes the words to [Samuel] Lover - BS
File: R788

Kitty Wells


DESCRIPTION: The singer weeps to remember Kitty Wells. The two were planning their wedding when she died
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1858
KEYWORDS: courting death nonballad
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,SE,So)
REFERENCES (8 citations):
BrownIII 411, "Kitty Wells" (1 text plus mention of 12 more)
Brewster 92, "Kitty Wells" (2 texts plus an excerpt)
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 166-168, "Kitty Wells" (1 text, 1 tune)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 185-186, "Kittie Wells" (1 text)
Beck 78, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
LPound-ABS, 94, p. 202, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
JHCox 127, "Kitty Wells" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Kitty Wells" (source notes only)
ST MN2166 (Full)
Roud #2748
RECORDINGS:
Vernon Dalhart, "Kitty Wells" (Victor 20058, 1926)
Sid Harkreader, "Kitty Wells" (Paramount 3043, 1927)
The Hillbillies, "Kitty Wells" (Vocalion 5018/Vocalion 5019, c. 1926)
Doc Hopkins, "Kitty Wells" (Decca 5983, 1941)
Bradley Kincaid, "Sweet Kitty Wells" (Champion 15502 [as Dan Hughey]/Gennett 6363/Silvertone 5187/Silvertone 8218/Supertone 9208, 1928; rec. 1927)
Pickard Family, "Kitty Wells" (Columbia 15141-D, 1927); (Conqueror 7517, 1930)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "Kitty Wells" (Okeh 45048, 1926) (Edison 51994, 1927) (CYL: Edison [BA] 5341, 1927)
Virginia Ramblers, "Kitty Wells" (OKeh, unissued, 1929)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(110b), "Kitty Wells," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1890
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Kate Wells
Katy Wells
NOTES: This piece was repeatedly published in the mid-nineteenth century. The earliest copy (1858) credits it to Charles E. Atherton; the same publisher in 1861 issued an "authorized" edition as by T. Brigham Bishop. A third copy, from 1860, credits the piece to Thomas Sloan, Jr.
From the notes in Cox, it appears that this began life as a dialect song, but many of the texts (including Cox's own) are now in ordinary English. - RBW
File: MN2166

Kitty, the Wicklow Girl


DESCRIPTION: "God bless you all, I just came out to have a little chat, I am Irish sure, but thatÕs no sin, IÕm a rollicking merry Pat." The singer claims great success with girls, but wants only Kitty. He describes the happy process of courting her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, p. 68,, "Kitty, the Wicklow Girl" (1 text)
Roud #5498
File: Dean068A

Klondike Gold Rush, The


DESCRIPTION: "Oh come to the place where they strike it rich, Come where the treasure lies hid, Where your hat full of mud is a five pound note.... Klondike, Klondike, Label your luggage for Klondike." The singer tells the poor folks about easy wealth in Klondike
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959
KEYWORDS: gold mining nonballad money
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1896 - George Carmack and his companions discover gold near the Klondike River. By 1898 there were so many prospectors (an estimated 25,000) in the area that the Mounties turned back anyone not carrying a year's worth of supplies
FOUND IN: Canada(West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 186-188, "The Klondike Gold Rush" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4527
NOTES: Fowke collected this song in British Columbia, but believed it was written by an Englishman (it refers to a "five pound note" and a "quid," although Canada went to dollars in 1858, even before Confederation). - RBW
File: FMB186

Knave, The


See The Rogue (File: RL187)

Knaves Will Be Knaves


See The Rogue (File: RL187)

Knickerbocker Line, The


DESCRIPTION: The earliest versions seem to involve a man who became involved with a seamstress who later stole his watch. In the U.S. this plot seems to have disappeared, replaced by sundry nonsense. The references to the Knickerbocker Line seems diagnostic
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (but FSCatskills, p. 550, points to a probable parody from 1859)
KEYWORDS: nonsense robbery courting
FOUND IN: Britain(England(West)) US(MA) Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kennedy 323, "The Knickerbocker Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 146, "The Knickerbocker Line" (2 texts, 2 tunes, plus a text of a published antecedant)
Meredith/Anderson, p. 195, "The Knickerbocker Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST K323 (Partial)
Roud #2149
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Great Northern Line" (tune & meter)
File: K323

Knife in the Window, The


See Creeping and Crawling (File: RL033)

Knight and the Labourman's Daughter, The


See The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)

Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter, The [Child 110]


DESCRIPTION: A knight, drunk, lies with a shepherd's daughter. She goes to the king's castle and calls for justice. With the king's help, she finds the culprit. The king orders the knight to marry her; he laments his fate. (She reveals that she is richer than he.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1769 (Percy); title mentioned 1656 (stationer's register; tune from "The Dancing Master," 1652)
KEYWORDS: marriage betrayal trial royalty seduction rape knight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (17 citations):
Child 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (16 texts)
Bronson 110, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (24 versions+5 in addenda, though the last three are variants on each other and of dubious authenticity)
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 76-80, "The Knight, and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
GreigDuncan7 1465, GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "Earl Richard" (7 texts, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #20, B=#15, C=#16}
BrownII 31, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 17-18, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 15, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 230-232, "Sir William" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 315-320, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 150, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 3, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 40, "The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
DBuchan 32, "The Knight and Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text)
Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 185-186, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, p. 289, "The Shepherd's Daughter" (1 tune, called "Parson Upon Dorothy" in Chappell's sources) {Bronson's #22c}
BBI, ZN2533, "There was a Shepherd's daughter"
DT 110, SHEPDAU * SHEPDAU2 SHEPDAU3* SHEPDAU4* SHEPDAU5*
Roud #67
RECORDINGS:
Lizzie Higgins, "The Forester" (on Voice06)
John Strachan, "The Royal Forester (The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #17.1 in addenda}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Haselbury Girl, The (The Maid of Tottenham, The Aylesbury Girl)"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter
The Shepherd's Daughter and the King
Eywillian
The Marigool
The Earl o' Stafford's Daughter
NOTES: What might be a fragment of this ballad is found in John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont's 1611 play "The Knight of the Burning Pestle", Act II, scene viii:
He set her on a milk-white steed,
And himself upon a gray;
He never turned his face again
But he bore her quite away.
Of course, it might be a fragment of "Lady Isabel" or "The Baffled Knight" or several other ballads as well. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C110

Knight in Green, The


DESCRIPTION: A knight pledges a fortune to win a beautiful girl. To raise this money he must borrow from a Jew, offering his own flesh as collateral. When the bill comes, he cannot pay, and flees. And on it goes, till they all live happily ever after
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1825 (Buchan)
KEYWORDS: bargaining courting exile poverty reprieve Jew
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Flanders/Olney, pp. 184-191, "Night in Green" (sic) (1 text)
ST FO184 (Partial)
Roud #303
NOTES: The theme here was, of course, used in Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice." The text here shows no direct knowledge of that play, but the two probably derive from a common ancestor.
The notes in Flanders/Olney state that there is a broadside version in the Folger Shakespeate Library. Unfortunately, they give no other details.
It's worth noting that this very long item comes from manuscript, not singing. And, yes, the title listed by Flanders is "Night," not "Knight." - RBW
File: FO184

Knight of Liddesdale, The [Child 160]


DESCRIPTION: Only one stanza extant: "The Countesse of Douglas out of her boure she came, And loudly there did she call: 'It is for the Lord of Liddesdale That I let all these tears downe fall.'"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: (1833)
KEYWORDS: death mourning nobility
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1353 - Assassination of William Douglas, "The Knight of Liddesdale," by his relative Lord William Douglas
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 160, "The Knight of Liddesdale" (0 texts!)
Roud #3999
NOTES: Child apparently included this ballad in his collection "on speculation"; Scott's "Minstrelsy" claimed there were "fragments" still current in his time. Child, however, had only one stanza, and nothing more has been recovered since.
Child has extensive notes on the Knight of Liddesdale, who is the probable subject of this ballad. William Douglas, who was known as the Knight of Liddesdale, was active during the reign of David Bruce, the son of Robert Bruce (for some details on the complicated Scottish succession of this period, see the notes to "The Lord of Lorn and the False Steward" [Child 271]).
David had come to the throne as a child of five, and soon after, the English were invading; the English King Edward III (reigned 1327-1377) was promoting Edward Balliol as King of Scotland (this was, in a way, proper, since Edward Balliol was the son of John Balliol, who was the rightful heir of Scotland's King Alexander III. But the Balliol claim had been abdicated, and Edward III was promoting Edward Balliol solely to gain control of Scotland.)
In this period, there was much conflict between the Balliol adherents and the loyalists who supported David Bruce's claim. This conflict did not really end until Edward III started the Hundred Years' War with France and started sending his troops to France rather than Scotland. The Balliol forces were then pushed out of Scotland. Naturally there was much opportunity for various people to pick up lands at the expense of their neighbors. The Knight of Liddesdale was one of the staunchest defenders of the Bruce legacy (see Peter and Fiona Somerset Fry, The History of Scotland, 1982; I use the 1995 Barnes & Noble edition; p. 85).
We can't say much about this song, but since it seems to refer to Liddesdale's death, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the song at least mentions the complicated question of his successor (which Child does not elaborate) -- or of Douglas's dealings to obtain his fief in 1342. These were, according to Stephen Boardman's The Early Stewart Kings, p. 162, "somewhat dubious."
What followed Liddesdale's death was at least as dubious, since the other William Douglas (the assassin) became "Lord of Liddesdale" by a royal grant in 1354, and the grant was converted to an earldom in 1384. This even though the Knight had had a daugher, Mary, though she died in 1367 without issue.
Earl Liddesdale died in 1388, causing yet another squabble over the inheritance (since there was a major factional struggle in Scotland at the time); eventually the property went to Douglas of Dalkeith. - RBW
File: C160

Knight Templar's Dream, The


DESCRIPTION: Singer dreams of the burning bush. He picks up the fiery serpent and it becomes a rod which he takes to Jerusalem. He sees the knights of Malta. He is enlisted "to fight for Christian Liberty." He travels to Ararat and Enoch's temple before he wakes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 19C (broadside, NLScotland L.C.1270(010))
KEYWORDS: dream ritual religious
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Tunney-StoneFiddle, pp. 130-131, "The Knight Templar's Dream" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.21(38), "The Knight Templar's dream," unknown, no date
NLScotland, L.C.1270(010), "The Knight Templar's Dream," James Kay (Glasgow), c.1845
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Brilliant Light" (subject)
cf. "The Grand Mystic Order" (subject)
cf. "Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta)" (style)
cf. "The Grand Templar's Song" (subject)
cf. "The Blackman's Dream" (subject)
NOTES: Zimmermann, p.303 fn. 39: "Some of those who founded the first Orange Lodges were 'unwarranted' Freemasons, and both institutions had much in common in the early nineteenth century. Other Protestant organizations ... were also the themes of allegorical songs which appeared, along with masonic texts, in Orange collections." - BS
Moses and the burning bush are found in Exodus, chapter three. Exodus 4 mentions the rod which became a serpent, and vice versa -- but this serpent is not fiery, though it swallowed other serpents (Exodus 7:12). We meet fiery sepents in Numbers 21:6-9, where Moses makes a bronze serpent to combat a plague of serpents. (Note that it's not the same rod!) This fiery serpent did end up in Jerusalem, because King Hezekiah later destroyed it (2 Kings 18:4); the people were worshiping it. But Moses didn't take it to Jerusalem; Moses was dead before the Israelites conquered Canaan. It cannot have been taken to Jerusalem before the time of David.
Enoch's Temple is even more curious. Enosh was notable in that he "walked with God," but there is no evidence that he built a Temple. Even if he had, it would, in the Biblical view, have been destroyed in the Flood. - RBW
File: BrdKnTeD

Knight William and the Shepherd's Daughter


See The Knight and the Shepherd's Daughter [Child 110] (File: C110)

Knight's Dream, The


See The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)

Knight's Ghost, The [Child 265]


DESCRIPTION: The lady comes to the seashore to meet her lord from sea; the sailors tell her he is slain. She gets them drunk and locks them away. Asleep in her room, the knight comes to her and tells her to release the sailors, then tells parts of her future
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: death sailor prison dream ghost reprieve knight
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 265, "The Knight's Ghost" (1 text)
Bronson 265, "The Knight's Ghost" (1 version)
Roud #3889
NOTES: Child says of this piece that it "has not a perceptible globule of old blood in it," and he may be right (Bronson's comment is that it is "pointless") -- but its only real defect is that the knight returns in a dream rather than his ghost walking to rescue his sailors from their unfair treatment. The ending is, in a way, realistic; the lady will live a normal life rather than pining away with grief. - RBW
File: C265

Knights of Malta


See Sons of Levi (Knights of Malta) (File: HHH146)

Knock a Man Down


See Blow the Man Down (File: Doe017)

Knock John Booker


See Johnny Booker (Mister Booger) (File: R268)

Knocklayde


DESCRIPTION: "I'll sing of a mountain, the pride of the north...." The singer describes the great summit of Knocklayde. It would take a surveyor to measure it. It is made of limestone, and supports good grass. The singer will stay there and enjoy its beauties
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H509, p. 168, "Knocklayde" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13481
NOTES: I think this is the only geological folk song I've ever encountered.
Knocklayde probably would not inspire non-Irish very much. A short distance south of Ballycastle (on the very northern coast of Ulster), it rises only 517 meters above sea level. - RBW
File: HHH509

Knot of Blue and Gray, A


DESCRIPTION: Singer tells why she wears upon her breast both blue and gray. She says that she had two brothers; one fought and died for the north, the other for the south -- "But the same sun shines on both their graves"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (recording, Loman D. Cansler)
KEYWORDS: grief army Civilwar war death mourning brother
FOUND IN: US(So)
RECORDINGS:
Loman D. Cansler, "A Knot of Blue and Gray" (on Cansler1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Wearing of the Green (I)" (tune) and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Blue and Gray
NOTES: This song, apart from being ridiculously schmaltzy [Not necessarily schmaltzy if sung well. See Barton & Para's version, for example. - PJS], has real historical problems. The oldest version is in the Dabney papers (Dabney Family Papers, MSS 9852, Box 21, Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library), and in it, the southern brother "rode with Stonewall and his men," while the northern brother "followed Sherman's march, Triumphant to the sea."
The problem is, Jackson was not a cavalry general. And the number of battle casualties on Sherman's March to the Sea could be counted on one's finger. One has to suspect the author just plugged in some familiar names.
The Duke University collection has a text which eliminates the reference to Stonewall Jackson and credits the music to T. Brigham Bishop. Since Bishop's name appears on at least two other pieces ("Kitty Wells" and "Shoo Fly") which he almost certainly did not write, one suspects, in Paul Stamler's words, "an early-day Lomax in action." Particularly since the Cansler version is sung to "The Wearing of the Green." - RBW, PJS
File: RcAKOBAG

Knot Was Tied and the Supper Was Set, The


DESCRIPTION: "Young lassie" marries "Auld Daddy." "Bedding-time cam' hither." She asks, "are we to lie thegither." She gets undressed, gets into bed, and tells him to sleep "yon" and "gie room"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: age marriage sex husband wife
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1363, "The Knot Was Tied, and the Supper Was Set" (1 text)
Roud #7239
File: GrD71363

Knox's Farewell


DESCRIPTION: The singer (Sam Knox) now must leave the land where he long wandered; he will seek his fortune overseas. He bids his parents not to grieve, bids farewell to the land and his friends, and asks that he be remembered
AUTHOR: Words: Samuel Knox/Music set by Sam Henry
EARLIEST DATE: 1924 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: emigration farewell
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H49, p. 200, "Knox's Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: HHH049

Knoxville Girl, The


See The Wexford (Oxford, Knoxville, Noel) Girl [Laws P35] (File: LP35)

Kock, De (The Cook)


DESCRIPTION: German shanty. Verses made up of short phrases, the cook describing himself, his habits, the meals he prepares. No chorus, but a pull on "seggt he" (says he) after each phrase. "Yellow peas, sez he. Cook for me, sez he. Keep them stirred, sez he," etc.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1888 (L.A. Smith, _Music of the Waters_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty cook food
FOUND IN: Germany
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 537-539, "De Kock" (3 texts-German & English, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "In Berlin Sagt 'Er" (tune)
File: Hugi537

Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall, A (Come to Me on Saturday Night)


DESCRIPTION: Swedish hauling song. Chorus: "Viktoria, Viktoria! Kirre-verre-vipp-bom! Hurra sa!" Printed verses have rhymes about drinking, Hugill says there were 18 verses he couldn't print.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage shanty worksong
FOUND IN: Sweden
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill, pp. 427-428, "A Kom Till Mig Pa Lordag Kvall " (2 texts-Swedish & English, 1 tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
cf. "Halarvisa" (similar chorus)
NOTES: Hugill says the unprintable verses of this shanty are identical to a Chinese song which refers to the "18 points of feeling." They are quoted in Sang under Segel. - SL
File: Hugi427

Kookaburra


DESCRIPTION: "Kookaburra sits in an old gum tree, Merry merry king of the bush is he, Laugh, kookaburra, laugh, kookaburra, Gay your life must be."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1973
KEYWORDS: animal nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 413, "Kookaburra" (1 text)
File: FSWB413B

Kum Ba Yah


See Kum By Yah (File: FSWB368D)

Kum By Yah


DESCRIPTION: You know the drill: "Kum by yah, my Lord, kum by yah (x3), Oh, Lord, Kum by yah." "Someone's crying, Lord..." "Someone's singing, Lord..." "Someone's praying, Lord...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (recording, Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry)
KEYWORDS: religious nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Silber-FSWB, p. 368, "Kum Ba Yah" (1 text)
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger & Sonny Terry, "Kum Ba Yah" (on SeegerTerry)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come By Here" (form)
NOTES: Although almost the prototypical camp song, and certainly a folk song in that right, genuine field collections seem to be few and far between. - RBW
File: FSWB368D

Kyle's Flowery Braes


See Laurel Hill (File: HHH008)

L'amant a la Fenetre de sa Maitresse (The Lover at his Mistress's Window)


DESCRIPTION: French. The singer returned from war and knocked at his mistress's door. Her father and mother are in their bed, and they have barred the door and have the keys. She opens the window to her bedroom.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: foreignlanguage courting love sex return father lover mother nightvisit
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 493-494, "L'amant a la Fenetre de sa Maitresse" (1 text, 1 tune)
File: Pea493

L'il Liza Jane


See Li'l Liza Jane (File: FSWB037)

L'Internationale


See The Internationale (File: FSWB297B)

La Courte Paille


See Courte Paille, La (File: FMB041)

La Cucaracha


See Cucaracha, La (File: San289)

La Gaie-Annee


See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

La Gui-Annee


See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

La Guignolee


See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

La Guillannee


See Guillannee, La (La Gui-Annee) (File: BMRF584)

La Rose Blanche (The White Rose)


See Rose Blanche, La (The White Rose) (File: FMB118)

La, La, My Baby


DESCRIPTION: "La, la, my baby, your cradle I'll rock, I've undressed you all, except one little sock. La, la, my baby, now close your blue eyes, La, la, my baby, oh how the time flies"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: lullaby baby clothes
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1557, "La, La, My Baby" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #13506
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 text. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81557

Laboring Man's Daughter, The (The Knight's Dream)


DESCRIPTION: A nobleman dreams of a beautiful girl. After seven years' searching he finds her, a poor laboring-man's daughter. He tells her he has seen her only in a dream, but is confident she will not deny him. He takes out a ring and proposes. (They happily marry)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (Sharp, JFSS)
LONG DESCRIPTION: A nobleman's son dreams of "the beautiful-est girl in the nation." After seven years' searching he finds her, a poor laboring-man's daughter. He tells her he has only seen her once, as she lay by him in a dream, but he is confident she will not deny him. She asks what is his desire, that he's so afraid of denial; "Although I am poor, no scorn I'll endure/Do not put me under any such trial." He takes out a ring and proposes. (She worries that his parents will look down on her; he replies that they are both dead, and his friends will not object. They marry and are happy)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage ring travel dream nobility worker beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North)) Ireland Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Kennedy 132, "The Labouring Man's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 540-541, "The Knight and the Labourman's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST K132 (Partial)
Roud #595
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Queen Among the Heather" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Knight and Labourman's Daughter
NOTES: I'm not certain "A Cornish Young Man" is the same song, but Kennedy lumps it in. - PJS
File: K132

Labour Boroo, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer dreams he is at the "Labour Borue." Everyone is polite; they offer a seat, brandy, a smoke, money for the asking, and a taxi home; his wife welcomes him. His wife wakes him. He screams. She asks if his worthless self had had a nightmare.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1970 (Morton-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: work unemployment dream husband wife
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Morton-Ulster 25, "The Dream" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hammond-Belfast, pp. 46-47, "The Labour Boroo" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2886
NOTES: Morton-Ulster: "N.E. Ireland has always been the 'industrialized' sector of the country.... When a man is unemployed he faces what for many is a humiliating half-life of 'signing on at the Employment Exchange', otherwise known as the Labour Bureau (Borue)." - BS
File: MorU025

Labourer, The


See Jolly Thresher, The (Poor Man, Poor Man) (File: R127)

Labouring Man's Daughter, The


See The Laboring Man's Daughter (The Knight's Dream) (File: K132)

Labrador


DESCRIPTION: The crew on the schooner Carey catch bait in Conception Bay and cash in at Holyrood. They hear fishing is exceptional on the Labrador. They fight bad weather to get there, are poorly equipped, and fare badly.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: fishing sea storm
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 138-139, "Labrador" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9965
File: Pea138

Lachlan Tigers, The


DESCRIPTION: The shearers wait eagerly for the shift to begin: "At his gate each shearer stood as the whistle loudly blew...." The expert shearers set out to be the fastest, while the boss tries to make sure they shear the sheep completely.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1957 (Stewart & Keesing, _Old Bush Songs_)
KEYWORDS: sheep work Australia
FOUND IN: Australia
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fahey-Eureka, pp. 136-137, "The Lachlan Tigers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Paterson/Fahey/Seal, pp. 178-180, "At the Gate Each Shearer Stood" (1 text)
DT, LCHLNTIG*
RECORDINGS:
A. L. Lloyd, "Lachlan Tigers" (on Lloyd4, Lloyd8)
NOTES: The region along the Lachlan river is one of Australia's best sheep-raising areas. Naturally, it attracted the best shearers, who came to be known as the "Lachlan Tigers."
Jackie Howe holds the all-time (and probably unsurpassable) record of 328 sheep sheared in an eight hour day; hence the remark in the song "There's never been a better board since Jackie Howe expired." - RBW
File: FaE136

Lad and a Lass, A


See No Sign of a Marriage [Laws P3] (File: LP03)

Lad at the Laird's o' Drum, The


DESCRIPTION: "Haud awa ye ill-faur'd carle, And coort nae mair at me, For I've a lad at the Laird's o' Drum, And a bonnie lad is he."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 750, "The Lad at the Laird's o' Drum" (1 text)
Roud #6176
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan4 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4750

Lad in the Scotch Brigade, The (The Banks of the Clyde)


DESCRIPTION: Geordie and Jean meet on the banks of the Clyde. She tries to dissuade him from "going to fight for his queen." She gives him a lock of her hair. In the battle a bullet "buried that dear lock of hair in his heart." Jean and his mother comfort each other.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1945 (Spelling)
KEYWORDS: courting army battle separation death lover soldier
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf,West)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Leach-Labrador 133, "The Banks of the Clyde" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST LLab133 (Partial)
Roud #1784
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2032), "The Lad in the Scotch Brigade" or "The Burning Plains of Egypt" ("On the banks of the Clyde stood a lass [sic] and a lassie"), unknown, n.d.
NLScotland, RB.m.143(125), "The Scotch Brigade," Poet's Box (Dundee), c. 1880-1900
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Fair Town of Greenock" (theme)
cf. "The Paisley Officer (India's Burning Sands)" [Laws N2] (theme)
NOTES: This ballad is reported in What We Sang Down on the Farm: A Forgotten Manuscript on Western Canadian Singing Traditions by David A.E. Spelling in Canadian Journal for Traditional Music (1985). The article includes an anonymous undated manuscript collected in Alberta by Dr. Robert E. Gard in the 1940s. The author of that manuscript recalls that "our favourite war song was 'The Lad in the Scotch Brigade,' a product of the war in Egypt and the Soudan." The manuscript then summarizes the ballad and includes the chorus from the broadside omitted in the Leach-Labrador version.
The Alberta source, in placing the war "in Egypt and the Soudan" was probably imagining it to be about the recent (1884-1885 and 1896-1898) wars against the Dervish Empire. The ballad does not name the battle at which the hero is killed but refers only to "the great victory." In those "river wars" the "great victory" was the Battle of Omdurman, September 2, 1898. However, one of Roud's sources for #1784, as "The Scotch Brigade," was Delaney's Song Book No.1 published in 1892, before the second Dervish war. Too bad: the Scotch Brigade -- the 94th Regiment of Foot -- was in the second war against the Dervish Empire. It does not seem that the Scotch Brigade was in Egypt at any other time. You can find a history of the Scottish Brigade at the Dungarvan Museum site Historical Articles - BS
Peter Power-Hynes sends the following, which perhaps helps explain the situation (very slightly edited for formatting, but the words are all his):
"After the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon the 94th effectively became an Irish Regiment by being 'depoted' in Ireland in various towns from the 1820s right up to 1922 (disbandment) with the exception of a few engagements abroad.
"Following the Cardwell Reforms in 1880 after the 'Zulu Wars' the 94th became the 2nd B[attalio]n The Connaught Rangers. The First Bn was the old 88th Foot the original Connaught Rangers who by a sheer coincidence had served with the 94th in General Picton's 3rd Light Div[ision] in the Peninsula.
"About 20 men from the 2nd Bn Connaught Rangers (formerly 94th) volunteered for service on the Gordon Relief Expedition to the Sudan 1884 and were engaged as Camel Mounted Infantry. Their toughest fight was as part of the Square at the Battle of Abu Klea (wells).
"About 100 men of the old 94th had prev served in Egypt in the 1882 Campaign attached to the old 18th Royal Irish Regiment (from Clonmel, County Tipperary.)
In Armagh town where I was born
all free from debt and danger
till one O'Connor enlisted me
to be a Connaught Ranger
"Prior to the Zulu Wars the 94th were depoted at Armagh and they were nicknamed 'The Gallant Armaghs.' Many of the Officers still appeared to be from traditional Scottish Families like Lieut Col Anstruther who commanded them in South Africa and unfortunately got himself killed at Bronkhurst Spruit in December 1880. Prior to that ambush by the Boers, the Band of the 94th were singing,
Kiss me, mother, kiss your darling
"Its a bit ironic and sad that generally speaking the Irish don't rate the 94th as Irish and the Scottish don't rate them as a real Scottish Regiment after the Napoleonic Wars."
For more on the Gordon relief expedition and the Sudan campaigns, see "Andy McElroe"; also "Hector MacDonald" and "Annie Dear, Good-Bye." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LLab133

Lad o' Paton's Mill, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer says, in the chorus, "I'll awa wi' my doggie ... Through the frost and snow." She says "Maybe I'll be married yet To the lad o' Paton's Mill." "Paton's Mill's a bonny mill"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad dog miller
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 769, "The Lad o' Paton's Mill" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #6187
NOTES: GreigDuncan4 quoting Duncan: "The 'Paton's Mill' is obviously of Alloa or Tillycoultry. No more remembered [by Mrs Gillespie], but the theme of the song is the young lady meeting a Paton when out airing her 'doggie' -- for the purpose.... partly taken, in air and words, from 'Maybe I'll be Married Yet.'" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4769

Lad o' Shuttlehowe, The


DESCRIPTION: Joseph would visit his girl at night. She is asleep when he arrives but her baby wakes her father. Joseph wishes the father a good evening and asks if he would take snuff. The father would accept "in decent hours." Joseph wishes "guid morning" and leaves
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit baby father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan4 779, "The Lad o' Shuttlehowe" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6194
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie's Nae a Gentleman" (tune, per GreigDuncan4)
cf. "The Battle of Harlaw" (tune, per GreigDuncan4)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Hey the Lad the Bonnie Lad
NOTES: GreigDuncan4 quoting Duncan: "The heroine was the late Mrs Watt, Affath, when a young woman at home at Burnthill, Bonnykelly; 'the bonny lad' being the late Joseph MacBoyle, Shittlehowe; the farmer her father, Mr Ironside. The incident said to be an actual one." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4779

Lad That I Was Last Wi', The


DESCRIPTION: Molly, pregnant, mourns that she "quite undone will be, Gin I dinna get the bonny lad that I was last wi'." He overhears her and says he loves her. They marry and are happy. Advice: maids, bide your time and "you'll enjoy your true love"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: love marriage pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 979, "The Lad That I Was Last Wi'" (11 texts, 9 tunes)
Roud #6732
File: GrD5979

Lad that Never Kissed a Lass, The


DESCRIPTION: "The lad that never kissed a lass is nae the lad for me ... For my bonnie laddie's kissed twa-three"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1624, "The Lad that Never Kissed a Lass" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #13004
NOTES: The current description is based on the GreigDuncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81624

Lad That's Far Awa, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer's sweetheart is a sailor "banished by the law To go owre the seas and far awa." Her mother wants her "to marry a man of high degree." She imagines him returned and will not forsake him for "rings, jewels and 'a." In one version he does return
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love return separation transportation mother sailor money exile
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #129, pp. 1-2, "The Lad That's Far Awa'" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 61, "The Lad That's Far Awa" (2 texts)
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 12-13, "I Love Him Still Though He's Far Awa'" (1 tune)
Roud #5812
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Sailor Lad
NOTES: Christie's text has enough lines in common with the GreigDuncan texts to show that the song itself existed in some form in 1876. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1061

Lad Wha Hauds the Ploo, The


DESCRIPTION: "There's some wha like a country life while others prefer the toon," but "there's nae a blyther lad" than the ploughboy. He whistles in all weather with few holidays "but he's aye happy wi' his lot." He can work and talk with a girl at the same time
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming nonballad courting work
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 419, "The Lad Wha Hauds the Ploo" (1 text)
Roud #5938
File: GrD3419

Lad Wi' The Tartan Plaidie, The


See The Tartan Plaidy (O My Bonnie Highland Laddie) (File: BrAPS495)

Laddie Frae the North, The


See There Cam a Laddie Frae the North (File: Ord103)

Laddie That Handles the Ploo, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer praises the plowmen and farmers who provide others with food. He lists other occupations, and notes how much they are needed -- but none of them could survive "Gin it werena for the bonnie laddie that handles the ploo."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming worker food
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #107, p. 1, "The Laddie that Handles the Ploo"; Greig #160, p. 2, "The Laddie that Handles the Ploo" (2 text)
GreigDuncan3 449, "The Laddie that Handles the Ploo" (10 texts, 5 tunes)
Ord, p. 81, "The Bonnie Lad That Handles the Plough" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #2170
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Farmer is the Man" (theme)
cf. "The Praise of Ploughmen" (theme)
cf. "Come All You Jolly Ploughboys" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Success and Flourish
Trades
Health to the Farmers
Tradesman's Song
File: Ord081

Laddie Wi' the Tarry Trews, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer is a woman, probably a mill worker, who wants to be taken from the mill by a sailor. She describes him, "a sailor wi' a rolling eye," rowing on the ocean and sailing across the sea. He says he would take her from the mill.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: love nonballad sailor technology
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 56, "The Laddie Wi' the Tarry Trews" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #5809
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "No More Shall I Work in the Factory" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Mill
A Sailor
NOTES: The GreigDuncan1 entries are all fragments. Two share the verse "He bade me aye cheer up my heart An' he bade me nae be dull He bade me aye cheer up my heart An' he'd tak me frae the mull." All three texts refer briefly to sailors: "And the laddie wi' the tarry trews, Is aye the lad for me," "A sailor wi' a rolling eye I'd lay my life to be his wife," and "And the sailor wi' the curly kep, Oh he's the lad for me."
GreigDuncan1: .".. millgirls' song - usually sung as they marched home in groups after the day's work (about 1850)." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD1056

Ladies o' Cheapside, The


DESCRIPTION: "He tauld me to keep up my heart and modify my pride ... And I might try the Justice Port, the ladies o' Cheapside"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: sex nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1441, "The Ladies o' Cheapside" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7272
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan7 fragment excluding the chorus.
Justice Port was one of the lockable gates to Aberdeen until 1787 (source: "Historic gates to the city" at the site for Leopard, The Magazine for North-East Scotland). Is that the reference here? There's a Cheapside in London, Belfast and Glasgow; any in Aberdeen?
A note from Steve Gardham to Ballad-L: "Practically everywhere in Britain had a Cheapside. it would have been originally the side of the market where the cheapest or chap goods were sold and the chapmen congregated." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71441

Ladies to the Center


DESCRIPTION: "Ladies to the center and a ding dong ding, Gents to the center and form a ring, Mile and a quarter round this ring, Meet your partner, balance and swing."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (JAFL 27)
KEYWORDS: playparty dancing
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 577, "Ladies to the Center" (1 fragment)
Roud #7666
File: R577

Ladies' Orange Lodges O!, The


DESCRIPTION: "The Orange cause is booming strong, Since ladies joined the Order." "They crowd round William's banner." Throughout England they "lilt their Orange ditties" and "work against those who love the night, And hate the British Empire."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1895 (Graham)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Graham, p. 19, "The Ladies' Orange Lodges O!" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: The Loyal Institution of Orange Ladies of England is a section of the Loyal Orange Institution of England. "Ladies Lodges have been a part of the Orange family since the middle of the nineteeth century, with Lodges meeting in different locations, mainly in the Lancashire area ...." (source: "The Orange Ladies of England" at the Grand Orange Lodges of England [GOLE] site). - BS
File: Grah019

Ladle Song, The


See A Rich Old Miser [Laws Q7] (File: LQ07)

Lads of Wamphrey, The [Child 184]


DESCRIPTION: The Johnstones raid the stable of the Crichtons. William, nicknamed Galliard, the Johnstone leader, by mistake rides off on a blind horse. He is captured and hanged. His nephew gathers a gang which drives the Crichtons from their land
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1791
KEYWORDS: feud battle execution revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 184, "The Lads of Wamphrey" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 495-497, "The Lads of Wamphrey" (1 text)
Roud #4011
File: C184

Lads that was Reared Among the Heather, The


DESCRIPTION: Girls: the best men are "the lads that was reared in the heather"; the best dances are in the barn, not the hall, with the lads ...; the best ship builders, the best soldiers and the best poets are the lads....
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1967 (recording, Willie Scott)
KEYWORDS: bragging commerce dancing nonballad soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Bord))
Roud #5127
RECORDINGS:
Willie Scott, "The Lads that was Reared Among the Heather" (on Voice05)
File: RcLTRATH

Lady Alice [Child 85]


DESCRIPTION: Lady Alice sees a beautiful corpse being carried by and learns it is her lover. She bids the bearers leave it; she will herself be dead by the next evening. They are buried apart but roses from his grave grow to reach her breast until severed by a priest.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1810
KEYWORDS: death corpse love burial flowers
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Child 85, "Lady Alice" (4 texts)
Bronson 85, "George Collins (Lady Alice)" (43 versions)
SharpAp 25 "Giles Collins" (6 short texts, 6 tunes){Bronson's #13, #15, #14, #28, #5, #42}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 452-453, "Lady Alice" (notes plus a text derived from Child C)
Peacock, pp. 738-739, "Young Collins Green" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 12, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 85, "George Collins" (1 text)
Randolph 22, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #27}
Davis-Ballads 25, "Lady Alice" (7 texts apart from the appendix, 5 tunes entitled "Johnny Collins," "George Collins"; 10 more versions mentioned in Appendix A)
Davis-More 26, pp. 199-206, "Lady Alice" (3 texts plus a fragment, 4 tunes -- but the fourth, fragmentary, text and tune could as well be "Fare You Well, My Own True Love" or something similar) {Bronson's #41, #32, #31, #29, #2}
BrownII 28, "Lady Alice" (8 texts plus 2 excerpts, a fragment, and mentions of 4 more)
Chappell-FSRA 14, "Georgie Collins" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #18}
Hudson 16, pp. 107-111, "Lady Alice" (4 texts)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 47, "George Collins" (1 short text)
Cambiaire, p. 76, "George Collins" (1 short text)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 117-122, "Lady Alice," with individual texts titled "George Collins," "George Collins," (no title), "George Collins," (no title), "George Allien" (4 texts plus 2 excerpts, 4 tunes on pp. 393-394) {Bronson's #22, #19, #1, #11}
OBB 154, "Lady Alice" (1 text)
Warner 96, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Niles 37, "Lady Alice" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 246-247, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 32, "George Collins" (1 text, 1 tune)
JHCox 17, "Lady Alice" (5 texts)
Silber-FSWB, p. 151, "George Collins" (1 text)
DT 85, GEOCLLNS* GEOCOL2 GEOCLLN3
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 125-127, "Giles Collins" (1 text)
ST C085 (Full)
Roud #147
RECORDINGS:
Dixon Brothers, "Story of George Collins" (Montgomery Ward M-7580, 1938)
Henry Griffin, "George Collins" (on HandMeDown2)
Spud Gravely, "George Allen" (on Persis1)
Roy Harvey & the North Carolina Ramblers, "George Collins" (Brunswick 250, 1928; on ConstSor1)
Kelly Harrell, "The Dying Hobo" (Victor 20527, 1926; on KHarrell01 -- a rather strange version combining the first verse of "The Dying Hobo" with a plot, taken from "George Collins," of a girl mourning her dead lover) {Bronson's #30}
Dick Justice, "One Cold December Day" (Brunswick 367, 1929 -- like the Harrell recording, this starts with a "Dying Hobo" verse, then parallels "George Collins")
New Lost City Ramblers, "George Collins" (on NLCR02)
Frank Proffitt, "George Collins" (on Proffitt03)
Riley Puckett, "George Collins" (Montgomery Ward M-4551, 1934)
Enos White, "George Collins" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1, Voice03)
Henry Whitter, "George Collins" (OKeh 45081, 1927, rec. 1926) (Broadway 8024, c. 1931); Henry Whitter & Fiddler Joe [Samuels], "George Collins" (OKeh, unissued, 1926)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Earl Colvin
Young Collins
George Coleman
Dame Alice was Sitting on Widow's Walk
George Collum
George Promer
NOTES: A number of scholars (including Coffin and Lloyd, with some support from Bronson) believe that "Lady Alice" is a fragment of a larger ballad (called "George Collins" or the like). The first half is found in "Clerk Colville" [Child 42]; "Lady Alice" forms the second half. Lloyd writes, "Either these are two separate songs which have been combined to form George Collins or (which seems more likely) they are two fragments of the completer ballad."
Paul Stamler provides this description of the composite ballad:
George Collins, out walking, kisses a pretty maid, who warns him he won't live long. He kisses her, goes home and dies. His lover kisses his corpse goodbye; she dies too. In the last verse, it's said that six pretty maids died in one night for his sake. Many have interpreted the "pretty maid" as a water-fairy whom Collins has been trysting with; when she finds he's been betrothed, she gives him a poisoned kiss. - RBW, PJS
The supernatural explanation seems reasonable. But sudden death transmitted by a kiss -- has no one suggested communicable disease?
The ballad is found throughout western Europe, including a manuscript poem from Germany dated c. 1310. - PJS
[For discussions of the question of whether this is one ballad], see Barbara Craster in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society 2:4 (15) (1910) pp. 106-109 (comparisons) and in Coffin, Brit. Trad. Ballad in N. America (1977 edn.) p. 51 and pp. 86-88, 241 - JM
[Ewan] MacColl in The Long Harvest... feels there is little left to doubt and combines them. He cites S.P. Bayard, "No two ballads in English are more closely allied." Harbison Parker gives much detail and together, says MacColl, "make an almost watertight for the two Child ballads as springing from one and the same source. - AS
In general I have followed the policy of listing "George Collins" versions here, without further notes, as the "Lady Alice" portion is more integral to the story.
Bob Stewart, who thinks everything goes back to ancient legend, says on p. 127 that "the plot is almost identical to a tale told of the Daghdha (The Good God), one of the leaders of the Tuatha De Danaan. He met with a woman on the ancient feast day of Samhain,,, who was standing astride a river.... He made love to her, and she identified herself as being the Goddess of fate and slaughter, who was believed to appear before a battle washing the bodies of those doomed to die." This is indeed an attested story of the Daghdha (although not one of the better-known ones; only one of the four other sources I checked repeated it), and I see the thematic link, but I would hardly call it "almost identical"; the odds of dependence are slight. - RBW
A curious thing is that Sharp calls the ballad "Giles Collins", but the protagonist is "George" in 5 of his 6 examples, and "Charles" in the sixth.
Again this [Silber's version] is fragmentary; George Collins, driving home, is taken sick and dies. His Nell opens his coffin to kiss him goodbye, then laments his passing. That's it; nothing else happens. Nothing to connect it to Lady A. except George's name. Arghh. - PJS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C085

Lady and the Dragoon, The


See The Bold Soldier [Laws M27] (File: LM27)

Lady and the Farmer's Son, The [Laws O40]


DESCRIPTION: A wealthy lady wants a youth to marry her, but he is pledged to one of the lady's servants. The lady brings her maid on a boat trip and throws her into the sea. She winds up in prison; the young man goes mad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Flanders/Olney)
KEYWORDS: murder drowning prison servant courting money
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Laws O40, "The Lady and the Farmer's Son"
Flanders/Olney, pp. 170-171, "The Lady and the Farmer's Son" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 490, FARMSON*
Roud #994
NOTES: This is so close to Sharp's "Handsome Sally" that Paul Stamler lumped them. But Laws and Roud distinguish them, so I tentatively do the same. - RBW
File: LO40

Lady and the Glove, The


See The Golden Glove (Dog and Gun) [Laws N20] (File: LN20)

Lady and the Gypsy, The


See The Gypsy Laddie [Child 200] (File: C200)

Lady and the Sailor, The


See Disguised Sailor (The Sailor's Misfortune and Happy Marriage; The Old Miser) [Laws N6] (File: LN06)

Lady and the Shepherd, The


See The Dowie Dens o Yarrow [Child 214] (File: C214)

Lady and the Soldier, The


See One Morning in May (To Hear the Nightingale Sing) [Laws P14] (File: LP14)

Lady Anne


DESCRIPTION: Lady Anne bids false Sir William farewell as he goes to war. One day she sees three boys playing ball and is asked to choose one. She would clothe the naked boy who has been with them one year. The boy reveals he is her son murdered and buried by a nurse
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1905 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: murder pregnancy adultery childbirth burial children accusation supernatural ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 20 Appendix, "Lady Anne" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 194, "Lady Anne" (1 text)
Roud #9
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Cruel Mother
NOTES: The following plot elements are shared with Child 20: a woman murders a baby and continues her life as if the baby had never been born; after some time she sees a boy playing and says that if he were hers she'd dress him in finery; she is told he was hers.
Why is the baby murdered? In Child 20 it is to avoid exposure at the lady's wedding. Here it appears that Lady Anne had an affair in Sir William's absence and was avoiding exposure at his return. The nurse (midwife?) murders, or at least buries, the baby after it is stabbed to death. - BS
This raises the interesting question of why Sir William is called false when it was Lady Anne who had the affair. Had he had his own dalliance before leaving, or did she suspect he would while he was gone? Was she trying to get back at him? Just some points to ponder.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD194

Lady Connolly


DESCRIPTION: Rebellion begins May 18, 1798. Lord Carhampton "burned our holy altars, and Dunboyne town also." Lady Connolly, "may her soul rest in glory, while Lord Carhampton's sent to hell." We'll keep Carhampton agitated until the French come, then we'll skin him
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1970 (Healy's _Mercier Book of Old Irish Street Ballads Vol. 2_, according to Moylan)
KEYWORDS: rebellion death France Ireland patriotic
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1798 - Irish rebellion against British rule
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Moylan 51, "Lady Connolly" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: Moylan: "Lady Louisa Connolly was the wife of Tom Connolly of Castletown House. She was the aunt of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and visited him in his cell in Newgate Prison a couple of hours before his death.... The Earl of Carhampton, of Luttrelstown House, was the Commander-in-Chief in 1795 and was responsible for the dragooning of Ulster in response to the outbreak of Defenderism. He was universally feared and hated...." - BS
According to Thomas Pakenham, The Year of Liberty, pp. 235-238, Lady Connolly did very little except write a rather pathetic account of Edward Fitzgerald's last hours (for Fitzgerald, see the notes to "Edward (III) (Edward Fitzgerald)"), which nonetheless made clear that the British had not mistreated him once he was in custody. Her position may have been somewhat equivocal; she was the aunt of Fitzgerald -- but she was also the wife of Tom Connolly, the commander of the Derry militia (Pakenham, p. 48).
Carhampton I think may be the Lord Lieutenant, John Jeffreys Pratt, second earl of Camden. He was appointed in 1795, and lasted until after the 1798 rebellion, when he was fired (Canning privately wrote that he had been rendered useless for anything) but promoted to marquis. I can't find any source that calls him "Carhampton," but there is no one else who seems to fit. Certainly theIrish did completely bamboozle him. - RBW
File: Moyl051

Lady Diamond [Child 269]


DESCRIPTION: The king's daughter Lady (Daisy) is with child by a kitchen boy. The king has the boy killed and a token (his heart) sent to Lady Daisy. She dies for love (prompting the king's deep regret)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: royalty execution pregnancy death bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Child 269, "Lady Diamond" (5 texts)
Bronson 269, "Lady Diamond" (4 versions)
Dixon XIV, pp. 71-72, "Ladye Diamond" (1 text)
Greig #162, p. 3, "Lady Dysie" (1 text fragment)
GreigDuncan6 1224, "Lady Dysie" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Leach, pp. 635-636, "Lady Diamond" (1 text, correctly titled but erroneously numbered as Child 264)
PBB 37, "Lady Diamond" (1 text)
DT 269, LADYDIAM* LADYDIA2
Roud #112
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Willie o Winsbury" [Child 100] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lady Daisy
Eliza's Bowers
NOTES: [A. L. Lloyd writes,] "Boccaccio re-tells [this story] in his tale of Ghismonda and Guiscardo, and in later years it was made into a play in England and elsewhere. Versified into a ballad, it was widely known throughout Western Europe and Scandinavia." - PJS
The link to Boccaccio was noted long before Lloyd; Child mentions it and many non-English analogies, and the link to the Decameron goes back at least to Dixon.
The tale is the first story of the fourth day, told by Fiammetta. In outline, the Decameron account is precisely "Lady Diamond," but there are also substantial differences. In "Lady Diamond," the girl is pregnant and the father forces the truth out of her; in Boccaccio, she is already a widow and her father discovers the truth accidentally; in "Lady Diamond," she dies for love, whereas in the Decameron, she takes poison, and the Italian tale ends with the king's repentance, something rare in the ballad.
With all that said, it's hard to doubt that the two spring from the same sources. Much of the difference may be simply due to the fact that the Decameron version had to be fleshed out to a full story, while the ballad version, like most ballads, strips much inessential detail.
What is certain, and needs no Boccaccio to tell it, is that a man who got a nobleman's daughter pregnant could expect no mercy. These daughters were intended to cement marriage alliances, and anyone who got them pregnant reduced their value in the marriage market. The punishments could be savage. For instance, Prestwich, p. 109, notes that the French King Philip IV flayed alive the knights who had had affairs with his daughters. By that standard, the king in this song was arguably merciful.
The delivery of a murdered man's heart is also well-attested. Doherty, p. 187, quotes a letter stating that, after the murder of Edward II, his heart (and head) were delivered to his wife Isabella -- although, in this case, she wanted them as proof of his death. - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: C269

Lady Dysie


See Lady Diamond [Child 269] (File: C269)

Lady Elgin, The


See Lost on the Lady Elgin (File: R692)

Lady Elspat [Child 247]


DESCRIPTION: Lady Elspat and Sweet William plan a tryst, but Elspat's brother's page reports to her mother. The mother takes the boy to court on a charge of robbery. The judge concludes that his only crime is being relatively poor, and frees William to wed Elspat
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1783
KEYWORDS: courting trial reprieve
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 247, "Lady Elspat" (1 text, 2 tunes, but Bronson says the tunes are not proper to the text)
Bronson 247, "Lady Elspat" (2 versions)
OBB 86, "Lady Elspat" (1 text)
Roud #4023
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "William (Willie) Riley (Riley's Trial)" [Laws M10] (plot)
cf. "Mary Acklin (The Squire's Young Daughter)" [Laws M16] (plot)
File: C247

Lady Fair (I)


See The Suffolk Miracle [Child 272] (File: C272)

Lady Fair (II), A


See Pretty Fair Maid (The Maiden in the Garden; The Broken Token) [Laws N42] (File: LN42)

Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream) [Laws K9]


DESCRIPTION: A sailor has a dream (. He hears Lady Franklin) telling of the loss of her husband, who disappeared in Baffin's Bay as he sought the Northwest Passage. He never returned, and is presumed dead, but Lady Franklin would give a great fortune to be certain
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1878 (Faulkner, _Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler_); broadside versions probably date from the period 1850-1853
KEYWORDS: sailor wife death exploration Eskimo
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1845-1847 - Lord Franklin's final expedition
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont) Britain(Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws K9, "Lady Franklin's Lament (The Sailor's Dream)"
Doerflinger pp. 145-147, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Colcord, pp. 159-159, "Franklin's Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/Mills/Blume, pp. 154-156, "The Franklin Expedition" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H815, p. 103, "Franklin the Brave" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #86, p. 2, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (1 text)
GreigDuncan1 16, "Lady Franklin's Lament" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 151, "The Franklin Expedition" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Blondahl, pp. 65-66, "Franklin In Search of the North-West Passage" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, p. 145, "Franklin and His Ship's Crew"; p. 146, "Franklin and His Bold Crew" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 97, "Franklin and His Bold Crew" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 401, LADYFRAN* LADYFRN2 LADYFRN3
ADDITIONAL: Leslie Shepard, _The Broadside Ballad_, Legacy Books, 1962, 1978, p. 155, "Sir J. Franklin And His Crews" (reproduction of a broadside page)
Roud #487
RECORDINGS:
Pat Maher, "Franklin" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Murray, Mu23-y2:005, "Lady Franklin's Lament for her Husband," unknown, 19C [there is a hand-written date of "1851" on the sheet, but this appears to be a later addition; the text itself says it has been seven years since Franklin sailed, making the year at least 1852]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord Franklin
NOTES: This song is the chief musical relic of one of the saddest events in the history of arctic exploration: The last failed attempt in the nineteenth century to sail the "Northwest Passage" from the Atlantic to the Pacific north of Canada.
It was a popular theme in broadsides, but most of the results were terrible (for an example of just how bad they can be, see "A Ballad of Sir John Franklin," in Sandler, pp. 96-98). It appears that none of these products survived in tradition -- except this song, which has proved enduringly popular.
Unfortunately, the song ends in the middle of the story, with an unsolved mystery. Most books about the Franklin Expedition simply describe the quest for the Northwest Passage, Franklin's part in it -- and then the quest to discover what happened to Franklin. I'm going to try to do it from the standpoint of the song, telling the history of the quests for the passage, then discussing Franklin, then looking what the song has to say on the subject -- and only then talking of the search for and fate of Franklin. It's not a very coherent story this way, but it avoids "cheating." If you want a more orderly exposition, try one of the books listed in the bibliography (I'd recommend Delgado or Fleming-Barrow).
The quest for the Northwest Passage began because the sea trip from Europe to Asia was so long -- going eastward, it required ships to not only sail the length of Eurasia but, in the period before the opening of the Suez Canal, also south around the Cape of Good Hope. The westward route was also long, and required making the dreadful trip around Cape Horn, which is perpetually stormy. Mariners desperately wanted a shorter, safer route. For that reason, the Northwest Passage had been a goal of mariners since Martin Frobisher in the sixteenth century (McGhee, pp. 23fff.) -- but, at that time, the Little Ice Age almost certainly made it impossible.
As the climate warmed, and as ships improved, chances became better. There was actually a case of a ship apparently making it through from west to east, although no one aboard survived; the Octavius had been frozen in off Alaska in 1762, but was found off Greenland in 1775 (Hendrickson, pp. 166-167). Plus, despite centuries of failures, people becane more willing to look. For most of the eighteenth century, apart from a naval expedition around 1740 (Williams, pp. 62-108), the area of the Passage had been in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, a closed group with no willingness to spend money on speculations or on anything that might affect their business (Williams, p. 49fff. Their employees at one time were given instructions to give no cooperation at all to Passage expeditions -- which, in practice, meant that they interfered with them; Williams, pp. 142-143).
Then came Napoleon. Since it was only the Navy that kept the French from invading England, the Navy had to expand; it ended up roughly four times bigger in 1812 than it had been 25 years earlier. (This had dramatic side effects, such as the Nore and Spithead mutinies; see "Poor Parker" for background.)
Following the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy was dramatically reduced; some 90% of Navy officers were on "half pay" -- i.e. still on the books, but with no commands. In effect, they were in reserve -- and, often, going slowly bankrupt; Fleming-Barrow, pp. 2-3. The attempts at the Northwest Passage were in part an attempt to find something for them to do. With so many officers available, it is no surprise that many exploratory voyages, to all parts of the world, were ordered. Britain ruled the waves; now it wanted to know just what waves it ruled.
Some of these exploratory voyages were successful, but those to the Northwest Passage all failed, and most resulted in much privation and some death -- Cookman, pp. 221-222, examines eight Passage attempts between 1819 and 1836: Three under Parry, two under Franklin, one under John Ross, and two under Back. 15 men died out of a total force of about 450 embarked. His list is not comprehensive -- e.g. Williams, pp. 18-32, documents the early eighteenth century expedition of James Knight, which was lost without any survivors from two ships and a crew numbering in dozens. (It is strange to note that no serious attempts were made to find Knight, even though the approximate site of his disappearance was known. Recent expeditions have discovered his ships and winter camp, but no records and almost no bodies; the best guess is that, like the Franklin expedition a century and a quarter later, Knight's men left their ships and vanished in the wilderness; Williams, pp. 32-45.)
But most of these were relatively small attempts. Franklin's 1845 expedition was organized on a massive scale.
Someone compared the quest for the Northwest Passage to the 1960s Apollo lunar program. In terms of cost, the comparison is ridiculous, but in one sense, it's accurate: The quest pushed the limits of what was possible with current technology. It is unfortunate that the Admiralty tried to hurry the Franklin expedition due to budget constraints.
The comparison with NASA is instructive. NASA's lunar expeditions were preceded by every possible test -- three generations of manned hardware (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo), plus much detailed exploration (Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter). Even so, there were disasters (Apollo 1) and near-disasters (Apollo 13). The Franklin expedition made no such preparations. No one tried to finish off the maps of the relevant area; no one tested the new equipment in Franklin's ships. The massive expedition thus became a massive disaster. What follows can only sketch the story as far as it is now known.
John Franklin, the leader of the expedition, was born on April 16, 1786; he joined the Royal Navy in 1801. His early career was distinguished; he fought as a junior officer at Copenhagen and Trafalgar (aboard the Bellerophon, one of the more heavily-engaged ships, and the one which would later bear Napoleon into exile); the noise was so great as to cause permament damage to his hearing (Wilkinson, pp. 117-118).
Franklin then became a noted explorer. In his late teens, he helped chart portions of the south Pacific -- and faced a shipwreck and his first experience of starvation. In 1818, as lieutenant in command of the of the Trent, he was part of David Buchan's failed push from Spitzbergen toward the North Pole, narrowly surviving the encroachments of the ice (Fleming-Barrow, pp. 53-55, speaks of a "hair-raising series of near disasters"). The next year, on foot rather than by ship, he explored the north coast of Canada between Point Turnaround and the Coppermine River -- an expedition that nearly caused his death, and resulted in charges of cannibalism and murder, though by men who were separated from Franklin at the time.
Berton, p. 70, accuses Franklin of "ignor[ing] common sense," but also admits that his orders were faulty and the mission funding was inadequate. Fleming-Barrow, p. 125, says more charitably that he was "ordered to hitch-hike through a war zone into a wilderness," being forced to beg assistance from the Hudson's Bay and North West Companies, which at this time were engaged in a small-scale war of raids; they had no time for a Royal Navy interloper.
It would not be the last time John Barrow, the Second Secretary of the Admiralty who dreamed up most of these projects (and for whom Point Barrow, Alaska is named; Savours, p. 39), sent Franklin on a mission that was not adequately prepared.
At least Franklin could learn. In 1825 he went on another expedition in northern Canada. This one charted the coastl region from the Coppermine River to the Mackenzie, and this time, his planning for the expedition was much better; Fleming-Barrow, p. 173, says he allowed "little scope for failure." There were no casualties, and much territory was charted. It also showed how good Franklin was at charming people; at one time he had in his camp Englishmen, Gaelic-speaking Scots, Canadians, Inuit, and four different tribes of non-Inuit Indians, but there were no fights (Savours, p. 88). Almost the only problem was a failure of two of their three chronometers (Savours, p. 89), making some of their maps ever so slightly inaccurate, but hardly Franklin's fault!
It was, in many ways, the highlight of his career. Never again would he have such a happy result while on duty. Franklin was knighted for his work (Fleming-Barrow, p. 175; Savours, p. 102, says this happened in 1829. We should note that the song's title "Lord Franklin" is not correct; he was neither an admiral nor a peer. His highest title was "Sir John Franklin," and his wife was Lady Franklin).
Incidentally, the 1825 expedition split into two smaller parties once it reaached the coast, with Franklin going west and the other party going east. One of Franklin's most important subordinates in the eastern group, Dr. John Richardson, apparently felt that they explored enough coast to have mapped the Northwest Passage (Savours, p. 99). This was almost true; the upper coast of Canada was mapped -- except for the Boothia Peninsula and the water route between it and Victoria Island. It could be said with fair confidence that there was a water route; between what James Clark Ross, Parry, and Richardson had found, that much seemed certain. But that did not show how a ship could travel it. So Richardson (properly, to my mind) was not given the reward for finding the passage.
Having made those three exploratory voyages, Franklin went back to more normal sea duties for about a decade, serving for a time in the Mediterranean and earning the famous Franklin Medal from William IV for services done on behalf of the Greek government.
Eventually, though, he was called home, and found he needed a job. Explorers were not wanted at the time, and the navy still had lots of excess officers. It took him a while before he was given an offer he thought worthwhile -- and it was one for which he really wasn't competent.
From 1837-1843 Franklin served as governor of Van Diemen's Land, bringing much relief after the dreadful leadership of George Arthur -- Franklin, in a brutal age, was gentle enough that he trembled when seamen were flogged, and one of his subordinates on one of the Canadian expeditions told of him refusing to kill a mosquito that landed on him (Fleming-Barrow, p. 129). He even tried to learn about the few surviving Tasmanian natives, though it was far too late to help them. He also founded what would become the Royal Society of Tasmania, and made some efforts to treat prisoners humanely (Wilkinson, p. 128; Cookman, pp. 26-27).
Frankly, he was just what the colony needed -- except that he didn't have the deviousness to outmaneuver the local officials. And, unfortunately, his civilized attitude was resented by the local establishment; they quarrelled with him constantly, and still more with Lady Jane Franklin, who actually wanted to be a human being rather than a ceremonial ornament, and who did much exploring and even founded a local college.
(Franklin's career seemed jinxed, but he was very lucky in love: His two wives were both beautiful, forthright, and highly intelligent. His first, Eleanor Ann Porden, gave him his only child, a daughter, but died of tuberculosis six days after he set out on one of his expeditions. (Moss, p. 15, thinks it an unhappy marriage, but I have seen no hint of this in other sources.) On his return, he married the former Jane Griffin -- in 1828, according to Savours, p. 167. Lady Jane Griffin Franklin, 1791-1875, would prove one of the most determined women of the nineteenth century. It has been said that Franklin's wives were smarter than he was. Very likely true -- but at least he was a man enough to let them be the brilliant women they were.)
(Today, Lady Franklin is known mostly for her quest for her husband, but if things had turned out differently, or if she had lived a century or so later, things might have been very different: She wanted to learn, study, and work; Berton, p. 138, sourly remarked on her room in Tasmania that it was "'more like a museum or menagies than the boudoir of a lady,' being cluttered with stuffed birds, aboriginal weapons, geological specimens, and fossils." I can't help but think, had she been born in the twentieth century, she would have made a good Education Secretary.)
(Franklin also inspired real loyalty from his subordinates. John Hepburn, who had served with him as early as 1818, and also lived through the disastrous first land expedition, still cared for his commander enough to volunteer, when in his early sixties, for one of the Franklin searches; Savours, p. 241.)
MSmith, p. 86-87, sums up Franklin's time in Tasmania this way: "Van Diemen's Land was an unpleasant, half-forgotten penal colony on the fringe of the Emmpire. Over 17,000 of the island's population of 42,000 were shackled convicts and many of the free citizens were former prisoners.... To Franklin and his feisty, strong-willed wife, Lady Jane Franklin, it was a hellhole. To round things off, almost everyone in the suffocating, reactionary frontier community disliked the Franklins, who were regarded as outsiders and dangerous liberals. Lady Franklin, an assured, unconventional woman in her late forties, simply grated... They found her aggressive and disconcertingly radical, especially when she defied convention by straying into unwelcome areas, such as her attempts to improve the island's mediocre schools.... John Franklin was a square peg in a round hole. He was a genial an inoffensive man who had very little in common with the hostile colonialists or the wretched convicts and often found himself at the mercy of the wily civil servants in the Colonial Office."
Franklin eventually was recalled from Tasmania in mild disgrace, though it's reported that thousands of non-government officials showed up to cheer him off. (In fact, the people of Tasmania would later contribute 1700 pounds to the search for Franklin; Berton, p. 140. This out of a relatively impoverished free population numbered in the tens of thousands. As a result, the Tasmania Islands in the Arctic are named for them; Savours, p. 168) But, when he got back to England, he again needed a job.
And, after years of ignoring the Arctic, the Royal Navy was getting interested again. It was clear the Passage would never be commercially useful with nineteenth century ships -- but Admiralty Second Secretary Barrow, who had sent out all those other missions of exploration, was in his eighties, and knew he wouldn't be around much longer; he wanted the Passage to finish off his career.
(How hard has it been to make it through the passage? Cookman, p. 197, counted only seven successful trips through the passage as of 2000 -- though Savours, pp. 326-328, has a list of 49 passages from 1906 to 1990, with the rate increasing steadily over the years. But most of these are icebreakers or small boats. It appears, until around 2000, the passage was *still* not commercially viable -- MacInnis-Land, p. 121, notes that in his first two years of hunting for the Breadalbane, there were only seven days of suitable weather, and Edinger, pp. 263-264, describes the attempt of the icebreaker/tanker Manhattan, which made it through the passage carrying a symbolic barrel of oil,but sustained heavy damage in the process; the attempt was not repeated.)
(It's likely that global warming will change that in the next few years, though; I heard a recent report of a group of people canoeing the Northwest Passage in a single year. Williams, p. xix, notes that the St Roch II in 2000 made it through the passage in a month, without ever being halted by ice! And StarTrib repots that, in 2009, the Northeast Passage was first navigated commercially. The Northeast Passage is much more open than the Northwest Passage, so it is easier find a path, but it is -- or used to be -- almost as icy. Climate change has made it much more accessible.)
(Also, the difficulty of the Northwest Passage does not mean that there is no traffic up there; oil has been discovered in the Artic Archipelago, so ships are frequently going in and out, and there are several icebreakers on regular arctic duty. It's just that they don't take the Passage; they go out the same way they came in.)
Once the Passage expedition was chartered -- and thrown together hastily to get it on the present budget -- someone had to run it. Usually a commander was lined up before an expedition was organized. Not this time.
There was no question about who the first choice would have been: Captain James Clark Ross was the greatest Arctic explorer then alive. He had served on Passage expeditions with his uncle John Ross and with William Edward Parry; he had discovered the North Magnetic Pole, and he was just back from the most successful Antartcic expedition ever made. There was no man alive who knew more about arctic exploration.
But he ruled himelf out. Part of the reason was that he had not fully recovered from the Antarctic expedition; in addition, he had promised his wife and father-in-law that the southern expedition would be his last. (Fleming-Barrow, p. 351; MSmith, pp. 76, 137-138).
The next choice would be Ross's former commander William Edward Parry, whose 1819 Passage attempt had come closer to success than any before or since (Delgado, pp. 58-64), and who had followed it with two other, less successful attempts at the Passage and an 1827 attempt at the North Pole which failed but which set a new "Farthest North" record that would stand for fifty years (Berton, p. 637). But Parry was now 54 and not interested (MSmith, p. 138).
With those two out of the running, there was no really obvious choice left. The leaders in Arctic experience were Franklin and Captain F.R.M. Crozier; each had drawbacks. Crozier had less seniority; though an intelligent self-made man, had never held an independent command. And, somehow, he never seemed to gain any recognition or fame (MSmith, p. 132).
To be sure, his paper credentials were excellent. Born in Banbridge, Ireland (MSmith, pp. 6-7), he was of an Ulster Presbyterian family (the family home, now known as Crozier House, still stands). He was born around September 17, 1796. His family joined the (Anglican) Church of Ireland in the aftermath of the 1798 rebellion (MSmith, p. 10).
Francis himself joined the navy in 1810, at the age of 13 -- an unusual choice, since most of the other members of his family were solicitors. He served as a midshipman on the Fury during Edward Parry's 1821 expedition to Hudson Bay, where he became friends with his future commander, James Clark Ross (MSmith, p. 29). He was also part of Parry's 1824 Passage expedition which ended in the loss of H.M.S. Fury (MSmith, p. 51). He was made lieutenant in 1826, and in that capacity he joined Parry's 1827 North Pole quest, and commanded Hecla while Parry was away trying (and failing miserably) to sledge across the polar ice (MSmith, p. 59).
But then -- nothing. He was a lieutenant on half-pay (i.e. without an actual posting) for most of the next seven years (MSmith, pp. 66-67), though he did briefly serve on an expedition sent to rescue some whalers (MSmith, pp. 71-73); if nothing else, that earned him a promotion to Commander (MSmith, p. 74). In 1839, James Clark Ross asked him to be second-in-command of the expedition he was taking to the Antarctic, and it was Crozier who did most of the work of organizing this highly successful expedition (MSmith, p. 78). But, of course, the credit would go mostly to Ross.
It was probably small consolation to be elected a member of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1827 (MSmith, p. 67). Crozier also has a lunar crater named after him, close to the Mare Fecundatis, between it and the Mare Nectaris, close to Columbo Crater. It's a small crater, though, barely visible on most maps. Nor is it located anywhere near either pole, unlike Amundsen Crater (which is right at the South Pole) or Scott Crater (and why Scott should get a bigger crater than Crozier is beyond me, except that he had a great P.R. machine) or Nansen crater near the North Lunar Pole. In time, he even was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society -- a major tribute to his scientific work (MSmith, p. 145).
But he seems to have lacked self-confidence (MSmith, p. 29). And -- he was a victim of unrequited love. His history in that regard was strange and sad. MSmith, pp. 75-76, tells of hints that he was attracted to the poetess Jean Ingelow (1820-1897), very well known in her time but now remembered, if at all, only for "High Tide on the Coast of Lancashire" and perhaps "Seven Times One." She was less than half Crozier's age at the time they met, and nothing ever came of it -- but, strangely enough, she would never marry, and some of her poetry refers to loving a sailor lost at sea.
It wasn't Crozier's last odd romantic attachment. His may have been one of the strangest love triangles of all time. The woman he had fallen in love with was Sophia Cracroft, Franklin's niece (Cookman, p. 54; Savours, p. 177; MSmith, pp. 87-88, says she was the daughter of Franklin's younger sister Isabella and Thomas Cracroft, and was known as "Sophy." Her father died in 1824, when she was nine, and Franklin, and later Jane Franklin, watched over her from that time. Franklin's relationship with Isabella was mutually beneficial, since Isabella watched over his daughter when he was at sea.).
Sophy Cracroft, after she grew up, served as a sort of general assistant to Lady Jane Franklin. She met Crozier in Van Dieman's Land, when Franklin was Governor there; Crozier and James Clark Ross twice stopped there during their Antarctic voyage. Crozier promptly fell in love with her, but she just as promptly fell in love with his commander Ross, even though he was already spoken for (Fleming-Barrow). Sophy, who apparently was quite flirtatious, was not interested at all in Crozier, calling him "a horrid radical and an indifferent speller" (! -- MSmith, p. 89). Smith seems to think he proposed to her at least twice, once while in Hobart (MSmith, p. 95) and once in 1844 after he and she had returned to England (MSmith, p. 133); on the latter occasion, she reportedly told him that she would not be a captain's wife.
Crozier apparently didn't hold her feelings against Ross (they continued to serve well together, and Crozier kept writing to Ross after the expedition ended -- indeed, Crozier lived with Ross and his wife in the last month before the Passage expdition; MSmith, p. 152), nor seemingly against Franklin, but he continued to carry a torch for her. (Interestingly, Cracroft never did marry. She stayed with Jane Franklin to the end of the former's life, and would take possession of her papers after her death.) In the course of the Antarctic expedition, Crozier was finally promoted to Captain (MSmith, p. 119). Crozier and Ross also selected the site of the future Port Stanley, the only significant town in the Falkland Islands (MSmith, p. 122).
All this seems to have left Crozier depressed. Jane Franklin and Ross both worried about him (MSmith, p. 134). He ended up taking a leave of absence from the Navy to try to get his feelings straightened out (MSmith, p. 135). When the possibility of the Passage expedition came up, he declared "I am not equal to the hardship" (MSmith, p. 140), and turned down the command (Fleming-Barrow, p. 366) -- though this may not really have been his choice; as a self-educated Ulster Presbyterian, he had no political clout, and would likely have been rejected anyway by political hacks (Sandler, p. 72); he would, as we shall see, accompany the party as second-in-command (MSmith, p. 141, calls this "the worst of all decisions," but I can't see why this is so; Crozier's depression would have made him a poor commander -- and it sounds as if it got worse as the expedition went along; his last letter, written to the Rosses, sounds like a man on the brink of a breakdown; it is quoted on MSmith, pp. 162-163. But he had shown his skill as an executive officer).
John Franklin, though more willing to command the Passage expedition, and more socially acceptable (Moss, p. 137, calls him "securely part of the establishment," which he was not -- hence his problems getting a job! -- but he was an establishment type), had a very different, and probably worse, set of drawbacks. He was elderly, overweight, not a strong physical specimen (Sandler, p. 32, says that he had had circulation problems even when in his twenties), and though he had long before explored northern Canada, he had not been part of any previous naval expedition to the Passage. But he was the only Arctic veteran available, so he was appointed to command even though many simply didn't think him up to the task (Beattie, p. 36; Fleming-Barrow, pp. 366-368).
Franklin's last expedition was mounted in 1845, with the explorer acting as commodore commanding two ships (the reinforced bomb ships H.M.S. Erebus and H.M.S. Terror). Not a single man ever returned (MSmith, p. 164). It has been argued that they must have found the Northwest Passage. But it is certain they could not travel it. Their fate would not be learned for many years, and even now, much about it is unknown.
By the late 1840s, the world was growing very concerned about the Expedition. They had been given supplies for three years -- enough that they would probably last four. But that time was about up, and nothing had been heard. A vast effort was mounted to try to learn the expedition's fate.
Looking at the fuller versions of this song, including the Murray broadside, we observe that the texts detail rescue attempts but do not recount the fate of Franklin's crew. I think it nearly certain that the piece originated in this period -- probably in broadsides of 1850-1851, when almost nothing was known and before it became clear that M'Clintock and Rae and McClure, not Austin and Ross and Grinnell, were the most important of the searchers.
It is possible that the Murray broadside is the original of the piece; it looks like a partial adaption of another lost-sailor song (in it, Lady Franklin is seen wandering by the Humber looking for her husband!). Nearly every other version, though, is shorter and frankly better; I suspect that there is at least one other deliberate recension standing between the Murray text and the large majority of traditional versions.
This song is surprisingly accurate in its details (another indication that it is contemporary), though later texts have mangled some names badly -- e.g. I can't imagine who captains Hogg(s) and Winslow might be (Mirsky, pp. 322-324, lists all Franklin search parties; neither name is mentioned, nor anything that sounds similar). Some examples of correct references in one or another text:
"I dreamed a dream, yes I thought it true": The idea of a sailor seeing Franklin in a dream is not just fiction; one W. Parker Snow had dreamed of finding Franklin near the North Magnetic Pole (which, amazingly and ironically, was actually about right; the Pole at that time was on the western side of the Boothia Peninsula, the expedition passed quite close to it shortly before Franklin's death. Had rescuers gone straight there at the first opportunity, they might have rescued some of his men, would almost certainly have learned his fate sooner, and might even have saved one of the ships). Snow joined one of the searches as a result, though he was of no other significance to the search for Franklin (Berton, p. 174, etc.). He later ended up having a major row with the later explorer Charles Francis Hall about a book they both wrote, but that is another story altogether (Sandler, p. 269; Berton, p. 370).
Lady Jane Franklin, to her discredit, also tried consulting spiritualists to seek her husband (MSmith, pp. 203-205). Strangely enough, this also pointed to roughly the right part of the Arctic, but nothing ever came of it.
There is a third spiritual link in the Franklin story, making you wonder how anyone could call this an enlightened period: Elisha Kent Kane, who tried to reach the North Pole while pretending to search for Franklin, was involved with a "spiritualist" named Margaret Fox; her ability as a "spirit rapper," according to Berton, p. 237, was "the mould from which all future mediums were fashioned." Berton's claims that no one tried to communicate with the dead are patently false -- note that Saul is reported to have brought up the shade of the Prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 28! -- but Fox perhaps did found the modern industry of making a *profession* of lying to fools stupid enough to listen to them. Supposedly Kane tried to get her out of this business, but still, he was attracted to her.
"In Baffin's Bay where the whale fish blow...": The Northwest Passage does begin from Baffin Bay -- up the Davis Strait, into the Bay, through Lancaster Sound (which separates Baffin and Devon Islands) and Barrow Strait (between Somerset Island on the south and Devon and Cornwallis Islands on the north), with several alternatives from there (the straight path is through Viscount Melville Sound and McClure Strait, but these are almost always blocked by ice (after Parry was blocked by ice in the 1820s, no one even tried McClure Strait until the Manhattan in the 1960s -- Keating, p. 109 -- and even that ship and its icebreakers eventually gave up); the best route for small boats is south through Peel Sound, passing to the east of Prince of Wales and King William Islands, and then west along the north coast of the Canadian mainland). On July 28, 1845, in Baffin Bay, the Franklin Expedition was seen for the last time by Europeans; they met the whalers Enterprise and Prince of Wales before heading into Lancaster Sound.
(Whalers, we should add, did most of the original exploring of these northern regions; indeed, it was the report of a whaler, William Scoresby, that the ice was melting in the north, that helped encourage the British voyages of exploration after the Napoleonic Wars; see Berton, pp. 24-26. Whales, and hence whalers, are common in far northern and southern latitudes, because that's where the food is -- cold water holds more dissolved oxygen than warm.)
"Three ships of fame": Franklin's expedition of course consisted only of two ships, Erebus and Terror, but they had initially had the supply ship Barretto Junior along; it turned back before they went on the ice. In addition, H.M.S. Rattler, famous for being an early screw steamer, accompanied them as they left England; Cookman, p. 74. (Some versions say he had only two ships anyway.)
The ships were indeed famous, given their Antarctic adventures with James Clark Ross; Mt. Erebus and Mt. Terror in Antarctica are named for them. Terror also participated in the bombardment of Fort McHenry that gave rise to "The Star-Spangled Banner"; as a bomb ship, she would have been responsible for at least some of the "bombs bursting in air." Since Terror had been part of George Back's arctic expedition of 1836, and both had been to the Antarctic with James Clark Ross, they were already adapted for arctic service, and were selected because they would need relatively little modification.
But this is where the technology of the time became a problem. Bombs were immensely strong; no ships in use were better designed to withstand the pressure of the ice; they had been used for exploration as early as Middleton's expedition a century earlier (Williams, pp. 62-64). But bombs -- tubby, heavy, low-riding vessels -- were probably the slowest class of ships in the navy, and the modifications for Arctic service, which added to their weight and put them lower in the water, made them slower still. Almost painfully slow. Terror was particularly bad (during the Antarctic expedition, Ross in Erebus often had to shorten sail to let Crozier's ship catch up; MSmith, p. 84). Terror even before her refit was capable of only nine knots before the wind and five when close-hauled (Cookman), p. 74. Those figures probably fell by a third as refitted.
It was hoped that steam might provide the answer. The two ships had revolutionary engines -- removable screw propellers powered by locomotive engines -- but the supply of coal was finite and could not be replaced, and the engines developed only a few dozen horsepower anyway. This was the result of Barrow's hurrying the expedition along; the Admiralty had little time to fit engines more suited to the actual ships. The result was that their engines gave them a speed of only about four knots (Cookman, p. 41; MSmith, p. 149, notes that Terror even on her test run under steam reached only four knots, implying that she would be slower still in field conditions).
Franklin's Erebus and Terror were not the first ships to use steam power in the Arctic -- Victory, sailed by John Ross in 1829, also used steam. But he found the engine so useless in arctic conditions that he actually yanked it out of his ship in 1830! (Fleming-Barrow, p. 283; Edinger, p. 33, mentions the curious fact that Ross didn't just toss the engine overboard, but carefully disassembled it and had it carried to a beach nearly a mile away. This was nice for historians -- Delgado, p. 91, shows a photo of some of the parts still by the seaside -- but a rather pointless burden for the crew. Ross's adventures inspired at least one song, "The Bold Adventures of Captain Ross,Ó found in C. H. Firth, Publications of the Navy Records Society , 1907, p. 331, available in Google Books, though this shows some pretty substantial errors).
Steam technology had improved since then -- notably in the replacement of paddlewheels with screw propellors -- but steam engines were still not mass-produced items; each had its own peculiar characteristics. And Cookman argues that, in this case, the engines used coal that the expedition really needed for heating. Erebus and Terror would be slow to make the passage even under ideal circumstances -- and ideal conditions never happen in the Arctic, and the ships were very unhandy if there were a need for fast maneuvering.
There was another drawback to the steam engines: They were not interchangeable. It had been settled policy for decades to send two nearly-identical vessels on exploring missions (Savours, p. 115); this meant that they could sail the same passages, move at the same speed, and interchange parts at need -- plus, if one ship sank, its crew would be able to fit on the other. And, indeed, Erebus and Terror were close to identical as originally built. But there was no way they could swap engine parts. We have no reason to think it mattered -- but, with the fragmentary information we have, we can't prove it didn't, either. It's another small bit of evidence of the hastily-thrown-together nature of the trip.
Another side-effect of the hasty throwing-together of the expedition was the lack of a backup plan. Voyages to the Arctic *did* end in disaster -- as Ross's Victory expedition had shown; given supplies for only a year and a half, they spent four years on the ice, surviving only because of the caches left on Fury Beach years before by Parry. Ross had known about this, and planned all along to use those supplies -- though hardly intending to use them to survive two extra winters! (For details on how Victory was trapped, see Edinger, pp. 123-128; for her abandonment, pp. 170-177.) Franklin had no such emergency cache, and no backup route home -- and, like Ross, his ships would be iced in for more than one winter.
"Captain Perry of high renown": Not one of Franklin's officers; Captain F. R. M. Crozier commanded the Terror, which had also been his ship during Ross's Antarctic expedition, while the slightly newer and larger Erebus was under the immediate direction of Commander James FitzJames -- an officer so promising and so well-versed in current technology that Secretary Barrow had thought about giving him command of the expedition, but he was considered too young at 33 (Sandler, p. 72; Cookman, pp. 55-57; MSmith, p. 138, is scathing about this nomination, which he thinks political, but none of the other authors seem to have thought him unfit). Instead, he was given the post of Commander aboard Erebus, where Franklin flew his flag -- making him, in effect, her captain, since Franklin, the nominal skipper, would be commanding the whole expedition.
"Perry" refers rather to the aforementioned William Edward Parry (1790-1855), an explorer active mostly from 1819-1825 -- and one of the best in terms of ground covered and casualties avoided; his first voyage had disovered Barrow Straight and Viscount Melville Sound and made it farther west than any expedition for more than thirty years. He, like James Clark Ross, had been offered command of the Franklin expedition -- and turned it down; he was long since done with adventure.
"Captain Ross": Either John Ross or his nephew James Clark Ross. The elder Ross, who led expeditions in 1818 and then commanded the aforementioned Victory expedition of 1829 (the primary subject of Edinger), had harmed the quest for the Passage by erroneously stating that Lancaster Sound was a closed inlet. His four-year second expedition (1829-1833 -- the one that resulted in him tossing his steam engine on the beach) learned survival techniques that the Franklin expedition ignored to its cost -- but also produced a distorted map of King William Island, with what proved fatal consequences (Delgado, p. 93; Fleming-Barrow, p. 288; Mirsky, pp. 132-133; MSmith, pp. 68-69, points out that this was one of the few Arctic expeditions that did not include F.R.M. Crozier, and that this would, ironically, prove fatal to him).
At 72, John Ross led an expedition to find Franklin in 1850 -- but found nothing, and came back with a third-hand report from Greenland that the entire Franklin party was dead. That was, in fact, true, but the details of the report were entirely wrong, and were (properly) ignored. Lady Franklin bitterly remarked that, if she could have done so, she would have put after her name in the subscription list for Ross's expedition, "with a deep sense of gratitude to Sir John Ross for murdering her husband" (Edinger, p. 249). Nonetheless, the Admiralty sent more expeditions; they just didn't send Ross. He died in 1856.
Ross the younger, who had served under his uncle and under Parry, commanded Erebus and Terror on their Antarctic expedition (1839-1843), making many important discoveries including the Ross Sea and Ross Ice Shelf (which were named for him). Though Ross had refused to command the Passage expedition of 1845, he took a turn hunting for his friends Franklin and Crozier in 1848-1849 (and broke his health in the process).
"Captain Austin": Horatio T. Austin of HMS Resolute, one of the search vessels. A man of great experience and courage (Sandler, p. 115), he nonetheless proved a not very inspiring leader. Clements Markham, a midshhipman on the expedition, describes him as small and stout, an advocate of steam, a "great talker," "genial and warm-hearted," "fond of detail," and having "wide knowledge, though he was a little narow in his views. But for managing the internal economy of an expedition... he was admirable" (Savours, p. 205).
Austin and Erasmus Ommaney of Assistance were the first to find any traces of the Franklin expedition, in the form of discarded supplies on Devon Island, and later three graves and other artifacts on the peninsula known as Beechey Island (Berton, p. 180). But they did not learn the expedition's fate (and met public scorn on their return home in 1851). Having concluded that Franklin could not be west of Lancaster Sound, and could not have turned south because Peel Sound was blocked, they turned north into Jones Sound, where Franklin never ventured (Savour, p. 211)
The very fact that the Austin expedition's early return is not mentioned in the earliest known broadside hints that it dates from before they made it back. Austin would not serve in the Arctic after his first mission, and spent the last years of his career in what amounted to desk jobs (Sandler, p. 252)
"[Captain] Osborn": Given its context and the timing, this is probably an error for "Captain Austin," but it might refer to Sherard Osborn, who as a lieutenant commanded the Intrepid during Austin's expedition and also served under Edward Belcher during the expedition of 1852-1854. Osborn was arrested by Belcher for arguing about the commander's plans -- but it wasn't held against him, because Belcher's expedition was such a disaster. Osborne later wrote a book called Stray leaves from an Arctic journal (Savours, p. 206).
(Arressting a subordinate was by no means unusual for Belcher. Savours, pp. 243-245, devotes three pages to a history of his arguments with junior officers. On p. 245, she cites a source describing which tells how Belcher *habitually* court-martialed his officers at the end of a voyage!)
All that can be said in defence of Belcher is that few men died on his watch. Otherwise, his expedition was an unmitigated disaster, learning nothing useful and resulting in the loss of four ships. And not to the ice -- Belcher (who had from the start indicated little interest in the Arctic) after two years decided he had had enough, and despite the arguments of his subordinates abandoned four of his five ships, even though they were still intact. Berton, p. 244, calls him "one of... the most detested figures in the Royal Navy" and Sandler summarizes his actions as a "disgraceful performance"; p. 253. Belcher of course faced a court-martial, which concluded that his actions fell within his discretion, but they gave him back his sword "in stony silence"; (Sandler, p. 145).
Belcher was deprived of all future commands -- and his subordinate Osborn promoted for his actions (Mirsky, p. 153). Indeed, Osborn would campaign for expeditions to the Pole long after the Admiralty had decided to stop wasting ships and men on the Arctic.
(It was, incidentally, during Belcher's expedition that the supply ship Breadalbane was sunk off Beechey Island; MacInnis-Land, p. 38. The search for the Breadalbane was the subject of MacInnis's book; the ship was and is the northernmost known shipwreck. The ordeal of the ship shows clearly the problems or operating in the Arctic. Erebus and Terror, despite a year and a half trapped in the ice, stayed afloat until abandoned, showing the strength of bomb ships. The unreinforced Breadalbane was not supposed to enter the ice -- but you can't avoid ice in the Arctic. Off Beechey Island, she was "nipped" by the ice and sank in 15 minutes; MacInnis-Land, p. 116. Had the rest of Belcher's expedition not been based there, the entire crew would probably have been lost.)
"[Captain] Penny": This might be an error for the more famous Captain Parry, but chances are it refers to captain William Penny, an experienced whaler. Lady Franklin managed to convince ("con" might be a better word) the Admiralty into sending this veteran arctic sailor on a search expedition in 1850-1851, but he didn't find much (Berton, p. 171.); he was sent into Jones Sound (north of Lancaster Sound, and far away from the path Franklin had been ordered to follow; Berton, p. 173). It was closed by ice, so he headed for Lancaster Sound, but that left him among all the other search vessels. His men were the first to find the traces on Beechey Island (Sandler, p. 115), but there is no doubt they would have been found soon anyway.
He then wanted to head north up Wellington Channel, but even had this been permitted, that wouldn't have found Franklin either. Berton thinks it might have caused the search to be directed in a better direction (pp. 190-191), but I can't see how.
Penny ended up in a dispute with Austin, and went back to whaling after his one experience with the navy (Simpson, p. 264).
"Granville": Probably Henry Grinnell, an American trader who was convinced by Lady Franklin to support the search. He paid for (but did not accompany) two expeditions; neither accomplished much except to make Elisha Kent Kane briefly famous for surviving a disaster he largely caused.
"With a hundred seamen he sailed away": Franklin's force initially totalled 134 men, one of the largest forces ever sent on an exploratory voyage; five were sent home sick before the ships entered Lancaster Sound and were the only survivors. Three of those initial losses were significant: the sailmaker from Terror and armorers (gunmakers) from both Erebus and Terror (McClintock, p. 231). The loss of the latter would make hunting for provisions much harder (and fresh food was the only way to get the Vitamin C to avoid scurvy); the loss of the former meant that the two ships -- never speedy, as we saw above -- might end up even slower.
It's perhaps worth reminding moderns, who never face scurvy, how deadly it was at the time. It affects the connective tissue especially, meaning that scars reopen; it also casuses blood vessels to leak, resulting in bruises where there has been no trauma; it leaves men weak and gasping for breath, and kills when blood vessels in the brain rupture (Sobel, p. 14). For years, it had ruined crews on long voyages, opening old wounds, causing joint pains, eventually resulting in the loss of teeth as the jaws swelled up; it also affected the mind, so the victims did not realize how bad the problem was.
Scurvy is prevented by Vitamin C, but that is found primarily in fresh vegetables, and also to an extent in fresh meat (especially organ meat). Crews on sea voyages had none such, and the symptoms usually started to occur in four to six months. This is because crews lived mostly on biscuit and salt meat (as late as the Franklin search, the daily died for sledgers consisted of 3/4 of a pound of salted meat and bacon, a pound of biscuits, a drib of many-year-old potatoes, and chocolate and tea; Savours, p. 263). By the time of the Franklin expedition, the use of lemon juice (frequently called "lime juice") was common -- but the juice loses potency over time.
Another curious fact about the expedition is that, though the crew was hand-picked, it had very little useful experience (MSmith notes that the Admiralty had given responsibility for choosing the crew to FitzJames -- ordinarily it would have been Crozier's job -- and blames him for botching it, even accusing FitzJames of "nauseous whiff of patronage"; p. 146. This was unfortunate in at least one way: It meant that the depressive Crozier had no close friends aboard the expedition; MSmith, p. 155). Apart from Franklin and Crozier, the only commissioned officer who had been to the arctic was Lt. Graham Gore of the Erebus (Fleming-Barrow, p. 373) -- and his experience was slight; he had been on George Back's disastrous expedition on the Terror, which would have taught him a lot about shipwreck but little about arctic survival. Plus he, like Franklin, would die fairly early on. Crozier was the only officer on the expedition to know about wintering in the arctic on a ship.
The men were rather better. On paper, only about half a dozen sailors had arctic experience (Cookman, p. 61) -- but some of those who did had very extensive backgrounds indeed. Thomas Blanky, who had been first mate on John Ross's harrowing four-year expedition of 1829-1833 (Edinger, p. 244), meaning that he had more experience of wintering in the arctic than any man alive other than James Clark Ross, would go on to be Terror's Ice Master (cf. Savours, p. 127). One of the surgeons had been on whaling voyages; there was a whaling captain who served as an Ice Master (Savours, p. 178). Even the men who had not been to the Arctic -- who were, of course, the large majority -- were mostly veterans with good records.
"To the frozen ocean in the month of May": The expedition left the Thames on May 19, 1845, to arrive in Baffin Bay in June (there was little point in arriving before June due to the ice, though a departure date a few weeks earlier might have allowed the expedition to make it a little farther before their first winter. At least in a normal year, though 1845 was more than usually icy; MSmith, p. 163. But a departure date earlier than mid-May was impossible due to the rush with which the expedition was put together. In any case, it appears that there was ice in Barrow Straight in the first year of the Franklin expedition, causing them to make a useless circuit of Cornwallis Island before settling down to winter at Beechey Island. So an earlier start, in 1845, would have done no good at all. The really strange part is that the expedition seems to have left no records at all at Beechey Island -- just empty cans and a few other artifacts and the three graves).
"On mountains of ice their ship was drove": The whole Northwest Passage is around 70 degrees north; as early as 1631, Luke Foxe had proved that there was no passage south of the Arctic Circle, and this was confirmed by the explorations of the west side of Hudson Bay done in the eighteenth century. Despite stories by men such as Juan de Fuca, the last blow to the "Straits of Anian" (an easy Northwest Passage with at most a short stretch in the Arctic) was struck by Samuel Hearne, who in 1771 (in the company with a party of natives) reached the mouth of the Coppermine River and became the first European to view the seas around the Arctic Archipelago. His journey showed for the first time that northern Canada was very large and contained no straights or sounds or passages (Williams, pp. 231-233). The passage, such as it was, is all in the Arctic.
(Hearne, incidentally, was forced to witness a massacre along the way, and his sad retelling of the tale would much later inspire Coleridge's "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"; McGoogan, pp. 1-3.)
Much of the Passage, including Lancaster Sound, is well north even of the Arctic Circle. Even in summer, the waters are never entirely free of ice; in winter, they all freeze over, and it's a matter of luck which ones thaw out in any given spring.
Nearly every arctic expedition at some point found itself frozen in, and those which handled their ships badly would see them crushed by the ice. Franklin was neither the first nor the last to come to grief this way, though severe weather in 1847 probably sealed the expedition's fate. (Beattie, p. 128, notes that ice cores show that "the Franklin era was climactically one of the least favorable [i.e. coldest and iciest] periods in 700 years," while MSmith, p. 179, mentions an Inuit report that "there was no summer between two winters" in the time the ships were trapped in the ice.)
The history of ships in the passage shows how deadly the ice could be. Parry's H.M.S. Fury was lost to it on his third expedition. The ice had trapped John Ross's Victory, forcing him to abandon the ship. Terror herself had nearly been wrecked in George Back's expedition of 1833-1835 -- the ice "once hurled his battered vessel forty feet up the side of a cliff" (Berton, p. 130); the ship barely made it back across the Atlantic and had to be beached on the Irish coast. Breadalbane, mentioned above, lasted only a few days in the Arctic. And H.M.S. Investigator never escaped Mercy Bay after being trapped in the Franklin search.
"Only the Eskimo in his skin canoe Was the only one to ever come through": The Inuit did indeed use skin kayaks, and they did know the paths through the ice -- and, as it turned out, saw at least some of the Franklin survivors. They had saved John Ross's 1829 expedition, which would have perished due to starvation and scurvy without them. But not every European commander had the diplomatic skills or wisdom to work with them (no one prior to Charles Frances Hall in the 1860s really tried to make friends with them), and no one bothered to talk to them about Franklin until John Rae in 1854. Even more important, Franklin had too many men for the Inuit to be able to provide useful supplies; the natives travelled in small bands and were barely able to feed themselves even so.
"For my long-lost Franklin I'd cross the main": Lady Franklin did not physically participate in all the searches (Sandler, p. 86, says that she volunteered to join John Richardson's search, only to be politely rejected), but she did in fact go to the Americas during the hunt, and during the great push starting in 1850, she was hovering around the edges of the search.
"Ten thousand pounds would I freely give": The Admiralty for a time was offering twenty thousand pounds for anyone who could rescue the Franklin expedition, and half that for definitive word of Franklin's fate, but eventually dropped it, though Rae did manage to collect.
Lady Franklin spent much of her limited fortune financing search parties; M'Clintock's final expedition, which found the key evidence telling of the expedition's fate, was relatively small mostly because of Lady Franklin's need to keep costs down (Berton, pp. 317-318): it consisted of one small ship, with the officers serving as volunteers. The exact amount she spent is unknown -- I've seen estimates as low as 3,000 pounds and as high as 35,000 (so Berton, p. 333, though this probably includes contributions from others) -- but it was substantial.
I do not know if it is significant, but Berton, pp. 202-203, says that Lady Franklin brought ten thousand pounds to their marriage, and that part of the estate was one of the things he left her in his will. Thus, if she did spend ten thousand pounds, it was the entirety of her own money. (But she spent more than her own money, by every indication; Franklin had left his first wife's dowry to his daughter Eleanor, and she quarrelled with her stepmother, arguing that Jane Franklin had wasted her estate.)
Lady Franklin's dedication did do some slight good for feminism: She would be the first woman to be given the Patron Medal of the Royal Geographic Society.
As we see, the song ended before the fate of Franklin was known. So what happened to him?
From what was learned later, we know that the ships were caught on the ice; eventually they were abandoned and wrecked (this was verified both by Inuit accounts and by wreckage; Collinson found some as far away as Dease Strait, some ten degrees west of where the ships went down; Savours, p. 233), but the men were unable to reach civilization.
Bad maps may have played a role. The Northwest Passage can be thought of as proceeding from Baffin Bay in four stages: The first is Lancaster Sound, then the Barrow Straight. The obvious third stage was the straight path through Viscount Melville Sound (which runs north of Victoria Island). This path, however, is usually frozen; Parry had made it part way on his first voyage, but had eventually been halted, and no one else had even come close. The fourth stage would be due west to the Beaufort Sea and out the Bering Strait.
The first, second, and fourth parts were known, but no one had even mapped a complete route for the third stage. It was known, e.g., that there was a straight path to the south of Victoria Island, but no one knew how to get to Victoria Island from Barrow Straight.
Franklin's first attempt at finding the third stage was an unfruitful exploration of Cornwallis Island; this led nowhere. Franklin then properly headed south through Peel Sound and past Prince of Wales island, just to the west of the Boothia Peninsula.
The question then was whether to pass east or west of King William Island, which lies in the area between the Boothia Peninsula and Victoria Island. This was where Franklin had to make a guess. And the charts Franklin had were not just incomplete but inaccurate. John Ross's error, cited above, closed off the eastern passage around King William Island (which, in any case, was narrow and shallow; it would have been hard to navigate -- MSmith, p. 171). Another error seemed to imply a useful passage further west which did not exist. (Lest we criticize, the Arctic Archipelago -- called the "District of Franklin" when they were still part of the Northwest Territories -- is among the hardest places on earth to map; I have an atlas from 1967 which still contains some fairly significant errors, such as showing Borden and Mackenzie King islands as one; an atlas from 1952 is even worse, omitting islands and bays and creating a great bay which doesn't exist.)
Given that misinformation, Franklin chose to steer west of King William Island. That route, while short in air distance, is exposed to pack ice coming down M'Clintock Channel. While technically ocean, the route in fact almost never thaws -- there is so much ice that it periodically throws floes high up on King William Island (Fleming-Barrow, p. 288; MSmith, pp.170-171, quotes James Clark Ross's observtions of the ice on the island). Franklin seems to have entered it at one of the few times when it was partly open. His ships were frozen on the ice for almost two years before they were finally abandoned.
Franklin did not live long enough to know the worst. He died, of unknown but probably natural causes, aboard Erebus on June 11, 1847; his body has not been found. His loss shouldn't have been fatal -- after all, that left the veteran F. R. M. Crozier in command.
But the loss of their paunchy admiral seemed to take something out of the expedition. Crozier, though an intelligent self-made man, had never held an independent command. And, somehow, he never seemed to gain any recognition or fame (MSmith, p. 132). Plus, though reportedly respected by his crews, he is said to have been a strict disciplinarian (MSmith, p. 97) and probable was not loved.
His mental state wasn't the best, either. Crozier told the wife of another officer that he didn't expect to get back alive from the Franklin Expedition (MSmith, p. 156; cf. Cookman, p. 73; Fleming-Barrow, p. 374). His last letters hint strongly at depression (Cookman, p. 54), and Lady Franklin wrote that he "seemed... ill and dispirited when he left" (Savours, p. 192). He felt, with some justice, that his record should have earned him more recognition than he had been given. Bitter and pessimistic, he was hardly the man to save a bad situation.
After being frozen off King William Island for two winters, Crozier finally abandoned the ships and tried to head back to a possible rendezvous point by the Great Fish River (now the Back River). But there were no rescue ships there, and indications are that the crew broke up into smaller groups, none of which survived. Several bodies have been found which seem to come from the Franklin Expedition -- and which show obvious signs of cannibalism.
The last written record of the expedition comes from the spring of 1848, as they abandoned the ships, though we know some men lived longer -- possibly into the 1850s.
Franklin's problem, perhaps, could ultimately be put down to "bad luck" -- i.e. lack of actual genius; his 1819 expedition had ended in disaster through minor errors in what we would now call "staff work," and that is perhaps part of what happened here: When he needed to be inspired, he instead got bogged down, wasting much time circling Cornwallis Island, failing to leave cairns to mark his progress (or building cairns but leaving no records in them; see, e.g., Savours, p. 292), and then dying before he could rectify his mistake.
(Most books seem to take a position that is either strongly pro- or anti-Franklin. I must admit that I find this hard. Of the men most qualified to know -- Parry, James Clark Ross, and Crozier -- all initially approved of his appointment; although Crozier eventually because depressed, he had written to Ross somewhat earlier expressing his approval of Franklin; Savours, p. 178. Reading the passages from Frankin's notes compiled by Savours, pp. 169-177, it appears he was much wiser about the Arctic than his superiors. And yet -- he *did* fail. My best guess is that he was a better-than-average commander for the task -- but that the task, given the weather conditions in the late 1840s, needed someone who was better than better-than-average.)
All this of course was reconstructed from the findings of the expeditions sent to look for Franklin. There were many (Beattie, pp. 262-263, list some 17 ships sent out by 1850, plus some land expeditions; Delgado, p. 149, says that 32 expeditions were mounted from 1847 to 1859), but the initial searches were rather a failure; although the ships charted some new territory, few discovered anything and several managed to come to grief themselves.
Lady Franklin did not get any useful word until 1854. At that time, John Rae -- who wasn't even searching for Franklin; he was exploring the Boothia Peninsula for the Hudson's Bay Company (Savours, pp. 270-271) -- met sundry Inuit (Savours, p. 272) who had collected a few relics (including the Franklin Medal) and had also seen a company of perhaps forty white men struggling south in the snow. The Europeans had starved to death (Savours, p. 273), and the Inuit had collected the relics.
While that located the expedition in the waters west of the Boothia Peninsula -- an area that no one had bothered to search, though Lady Franklin had urged it -- it left at least two-thirds of the men unaccounted for, though Franklin on the evidence was surely one of the casualties. The Admiralty was satisfied; it closed the books (Cookman, pp. 1-2, prints the preliminary Admiralty order to pay off the men's widows after a certain date if no word was heard. This was before Rae reported; obviously his report just made it final). The Navy declared the seamen dead (Moss, p. 140, says that this is good, since it started the pension process, but pensions cost them far less than regular wages), passed out a few knighthoods, and sent its fleet to fight in the Crimean War (where the British forces suffered more wastage than they ever did in Lancaster Sound, and for even less use. The Northwest Passage expeditions not only charted new ground, but they made biological, geological, and anthropological discoveries, though hardly enough to justify the lives they cost).
Lady Franklin wasn't satisfied, but from now on, she was entirely on her own. She would finally learn her husband's fate in 1859.
In 1857, Lady Franklin had chartered one last expedition, under Francis M'Clintock -- one of the most industrious of the early explorers, though he didn't become famous at the time. They had only a single small ship, the Fox, a 177 ton topsail schooner, formerly a yacht, with auxiliary steam (Savours, p. 284) that had to be crammed to the bilges to fit in all the men and supplies (Savours, p. 285) -- but they finally went to the right place, searching (mostly by sledge) around King William Island and the Boothia Peninsula. They also talked to quite a few Inuit.
During their search, they found skeletons, more relics -- and two of the expedition's summary reports (Franklin had had orders to leave reports, sealed against water, at regular intervals, though only a handful were ever found, most from very early in the expedition; in effect, we have only one document of the last stages). These two summaries were both written on the same sheet of paper, and found in a cairn by one of McClintock's officers (for details of the finding, see e.g. Sandler, pp. 182-185, plus of course McClintock, pp. 190-192).
The first report, from May 28, 1847, was still optimistic. The expedition, after wasting most of 1845 circling Cornwallis Island, had spent the winter of 1845-1846 at Beechey Island. Once the ice broke up the next spring, Franklin had headed south, spending the winter of 1846-1847 off King William Island. At the time the report was written, the ships were still stuck there. Still, there seemed to be hope.
The second report, from (probably) April 25, 1848, was a grim addendum written in the margins of the first; the ships had been ice-locked by dreadfully cold weather for more than a year and a half. Both Franklin's subordinate captains, Crozier and FitzJames, were alive to sign the report (McClintock, p. 193, believed that the note was written by FitzJames himself, save the last words which were by Crozier; he does not give reasons for this, but Savours, p. 292 accepts it). Franklin, though, had been dead for ten months, and a total of two dozen men -- 20% of the expedition's total -- had been lost. There seemed no way to escape by sea. On April 22, Crozier ordered the 105 survivors to abandon the ships and head for the mainland.
The 1848 report did not tell the fate of the last survivors, of course. Most think they simply tried for the mainland (the report says they would "start tomorrow... for Back's Fish River") and failed to make it. But David Woodman speculated that they wanted to hunt and fish at the river to restore their strength, then return to the ships (Delgado, p. 163). This would explain why there were relics found at so many places -- and also why the one ship's boat that was located was found on a sledge heading *north* (Savours, p. 296). On this theory, some of the crew may have lived until 1851 or 1852. But they were never seen again by Europeans.
They may have made severe mistakes in planning this last stage -- M'Clintock found they took a lot of junk, such as books and silverware, with them, though it has been argued that they simply emptied the ships (perhaps of materials not needed for the final part of the voyage, or perhaps to keep them available should the ships sink).
They may not have been in shape to travel. Their sledges were ill-designed and heavy. It is little surprise that most died along the trek. It appears that quite a few simply dropped as they walked, and died where they fell (Beattie, pp. 80-81). Then, too, the evidence of cannibalism is overwhelming (Rae observed it at once -- Savours, p. 273 -- and others later confirmed it), in the form bones carved by knives and often scattered in a completely unnatural way (Delgado, p. 168; Sandler, pp. 150-151; Cookman offers additional details on pp. 176, 178, then proceeds on p. 184 to accuse Crozier of killing living men to feed the others. Of course, the only evidence of that is Cookman's drug dreams).
The Inuit would indicate that, after Erebus and Terror were abandoned, one sank and one was crushed by ice (Sandler, p. 180). This seems likely, and would accord with a few pieces of wreckage which have been found, but unlike the Breadalbane, their wrecks have not been discovered (it's a lot easier to search around Beechey Island, where the waters open almost every year and which is close to regular sea routes, than the often-frozen waters off King William Island).
The crew's strange behavior in these final months led to speculation that the men were slowly losing their minds. Much would be made of this in the next century.
It is an irony of the search for Franklin that it finally *did* find the Northwest Passage; explorers from the west, led by Robert McClure, discovered McClure and Prince of Wales Straits and followed each far enough to sight Melville Sound and Parry's Winter Harbour (where that explorer had wintered in 1820), "forging the last link," as the journalists of the time put it (it apparently was Franklin's friend John Richardson who first said the that Franklin's party "forged the last link of the Northwest Passage with their lives"; Mirsky, p. 136. But the phrase became a commonplace). Both these routes, however, were blocked by ice and unusable at the time (and are close enough to the arctic pack that they rarely open).
McClure managed at one point to sledge to Winter Harbor, the westernmost point reached by any expedition from the east, but he and his ship Investigator did not come through -- and indeed blundered around so much that the ship was lost (having first risked a winter in open ice -- Mirsky, p. 145 -- the next year McClure entered a cul-de-sac he called "Mercy Bay," where the ship was trapped; Berton, pp. 228-232). Shortly before they were found, McClure engaged in a brazen attempt to send more than half of his crew to their deaths so that the remainder (the strongest) would have a better chance to survive (Sandler, pp. 131-132). Fortunately, they were found before he managed to execute his plan.
Even when McClure's crew was rescued by sledges from ships in the east, he tried to keep his sick crew on his ship, so he could try to claim the prize money for the passage -- but he simply couldn't convince the crew to do it (Berton, p. 248). Fleming-Barrow, p. 405, calls his behavior at this time "a little mad," which may be an understatement; several of his crew were dead, all had scurvy, and clearly they weren't strong enough to sail the vessel, but McClure tried to trick his superior into forcing them to stay with his ship. He also tried to force his crew to abandon the journals which would have documented his behavior (Savours, p. 222).
What it came down to was that McClure's crew made the passage (from west to east) -- but no ship did. In the end, the eastern expeditions returned east, and the the one surviving this that had gone in from the west went back west, without their vessels meeting.
Captain Richard Collinson, McClure's nominal superior, also discovered a passage (Delgado, p. 133), approximating that later used by Amundson, but gained little credit for it, in part because McClure made it home first and in part because he didn't actually follow the passage. Yet, as his brother noted in editing his journals that he "demonstrated practically that it is navigable for ships" (quoted by Savours, p. 231) -- that is, Collinson, though he mapped only a small part of the Passage, was the first to sail a ship through large portions of it. It was Collinson, not McClure or Franklin or anyone else, who proved that -- under ideal circumstances -- it was possible to get a ship through the Passage. (Amundsen would later say that Collinson would get far too little credit for what he did; Savours, p. 307). All that was needed after that was for someone to actually do it.
It was not until 1903-1906 that Amundsen in the Gjoa would make the actual passage from Baffin Bay to Beaufort Sea -- and even he didn't take the Lancaster/Melville/McClure route, but turned south from the Barrow Strait to take the longer, narrower, but less icy, route east and south of King William Island and then south of Victoria Island -- in effect combining the first part of Franklin's path with the main part of Collinson's.
It wasn't until 1944 that Larsen made it through the icy Lancaster/Melville passage. (Amazing to realize that, now, there are actual settlements -- Resolute and Grise Fjord, among others -- north of that route. Though Wilkinson, p. 78, notes an interesting point about Resolute: It is mostly a military base and airfield, designed to watch the Pole -- and it was supposed to be set up at Parry's Winter Harbor. But there was too much ice to get there, so they set up on Cornwallis Island instead. Winter Harbor ended up being the place where the first Arctic oil drilling began, though -- Wilkinson, p. 99. If that's something worth memorializing.)
But why did the expedition fail? Why did they make the strange decisions they did, and why weren't they able to make it home? Crozier and company were far from anywhere when they abandoned ship, but they should still have had enough supplies to make it to one or another Hudson Bay Company outpost.
This is the second Great Mystery of the Franklin Expedition -- the one that endures to this day.
The obvious answer is, Scurvy, or vitamin C deficiency (cf. MSmith, p. 174, who estimates that the disease would have turned serious just about when Franklin died). As noted above, this had been the constant companion of long sea voyages for as long a men could remember; it nearly ruined Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe.
Franklin's crews of course were given the standard rations of lemon juice -- but the standard ration is not by itself enough to prevent scurvy. On most ships, this doesn't matter; the crews get at least some fresh food. Not in the Arctic, though! And Vitamin C has an unfortunate tendency to degrade when exposed to light and air, so a dose of lemon juice that might have prevented scurvy in 1845 would have been too weak to do much good in 1847. Plus, Sherard Osborn noted that no canned materials were found among any of the relics found along King William Island. If the survivors had any provisions left, they were in the form of salt meat and biscuits, which had no vitamin C at all (Savours, p. 297).
What's more, scurvy affects both the mind and the body; a man too badly afflicted might make the sort of strange decisions Crozier and his surviving officers are accused of having made.
Yet many deny the possibility of scurvy (e.g. Fleming-Barrow, p. 416 thinks it killed too quickly). Owen Beattie found another theory. In 1984 and 1986, he autopsied the bodies of the first Franklin men to die (the three buried on Beechey Island in the first winter). He found extremely high levels of lead. He also looked at some of the bones of the skeletons found along the path of the Franklin Expedition. He found strong evidence of scurvy (Beattie, p. 16) -- and more lead. His theory is that the men were driven mad by lead poisoning, which would explain their erratic behavior, and of course would make them less able to bear the privations of an arctic journey. Documentation of this may be found in Beattie.
Beattie states clearly in his work that lead did not kill the three men he autopsied on Beechey, though it may have weakened them and left them vulnerable to other illnesses. Nonetheless, the lead theory has been widely repeated, often without even Beattie's cautions -- e.g. Emsley, p. 217, blames the deaths on Beechey, and the failure of the Franklin expedition, solely on lead. Emsley, pp. 218-219, also explains why lead is so dangerous: It interferes with the manufacture of hemoglobim, and causes the buildup of a precursor chemical. The intestines are heavily affected; there is also a high likelihood of fluid on the brain.
But while the lead theory has become popular, the evidence is far from complete -- Beattie examined only a handful of bodies, and only the three from Beechey Island were intact; all three had elevated levels of lead, but all died of other causes. And even if lead poisoning caused some of the other deaths, we cannot be sure if these men were typical.
If anything, the evidence for lead poisoning is stronger in the search expeditions -- e.g. nearly everyone in James Clark Ross's crew came down sick for extended periods, and their problem does not appear to have been scurvy (Sandler, p. 93); it has all the hallmarks of lead affecting the digestion.
Even if the men were poisoned by lead, we should add, it is not absolutely certain it came from their canned goods. Lead was surprisingly common at this time -- "sugar of lead" (lead acetate) was still used as a sweetener (MacInnis-Poison, p. 53), and yellow lead as a food dye, and red lead was added to snuff and used to color Gloucester cheese (MacInnis-Poison, p. 45).
Against the lead theory may be set the fact that the last message, written and signed by Crozier and FitzJames, seems largely coherent and reasonable. The men were debilitated, but not entirely mad. Berton, p. 146, mentions the lead theory but says flatly that "the main cause of death was clearly scurvy." MSmith, p. 181, notes that Crozier's decision to abandon the ships in April 1848 was rational: although the weather would be warmer later on, this was the best time to travel across the ice, which would still be firm after the winter. The decision may have been wrong, but it was probably the best Crozier could have done in the circumstances. A man who was truly mad would have been more likely to stay with the ships or head in some other direction.
In any case, there is the question of where the lead came from. *This* question we can answer: It came from their food. About a third of the provisions supplied to the Franklin Expedition came from canned food -- in tin cans sealed with lead. And yet, other expeditions also sailed with lead-sealed cans, and survived. Indeed, thirty-some years later, the Jeannette expedition suffered from lead poisoning (in the form of stomach cramps) -- and they identified the condition and corrected it (see Leonard F. Guttridge, Icebound, p. 158; for background on the Jeannette, see the notes to "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay").
This led Cookman to another theory. Canning was still a new technology in 1845 -- the first version was developed by a Frenchman, Nicolas Appert, shortly before 1800 (Satin, p. 122). His method worked well, but it was based on glass bottles, which were fragile. What was wanted was a metal can. But this required experimentation -- because no one knew why Appert's method worked. Although the first British patent was granted in 1811, people were still tinkering with the techniques. The contract to supply the Franklin Expedition was so large that most canners had backed out. One who did not was Stephan Goldner -- who submitted by far the lowest bid.
Cookman portrays Goldner as the extreme villain of the piece, deliberately cheating the Admiralty. This need not follow -- but it is quite clear that Goldner was not really up to the job he had contracted for. He was supposed to supply a variety of provisions -- canned vegetables, meats, soups -- mostly in small cans. He delivered almost nothing by the contract date, and was allowed to substitute large cans (cheaper and faster to manufacture) at the last moment (Satin, pp. 132-133, probably summarzing Cookman).
By the end of the 1850s, it would become clear that Goldner's methods simply didn't work. The hypothesis at the time was that oxygen caused spoilage (Satin, p. 125), which led to misundertanding of how canning worked. The real problem was that Goldner did not cook the contents of the cans (especially the larger cans, which had a higher volume-to-surface-area ratio) sufficiently. Plus he didn't solder them tightly enough; the contents, in addition to being saturated with lead, very often rotted in the cans, or in some instances burst.
Cookman thinks that Goldner probably adulterated what he shipped, as well; since he was canning in the spring, there would have been few fresh vegetables, and little fatted meat, available. Between the inferior ingredients, the inadequate cooking, and the undeniably unsanitary conditions in Goldner's factory, the canned goods would almost certainly have been breeding grounds for bacteria. Including botulism bacteria.
But is this a quality control problem or deliberate cheating? Cookman thinks the latter -- but it appears that some contemporary Goldner products had proved acceptable (Beattie, p. 65), and that Goldner had given satisfaction in the past (Beattie, p. 45). And Cookman is demonstrably wrong in one charge against Goldner (p. 87, where Goldner, correctly, argued that round cans are structurally more sound than square. Goldner's explanation is imprecise, so Cookman calls it a lie even though the gist of it is true).
But deciding that Goldner was evil allowed Cookman to evolve a vision of the expedition which makes Franklin and Company look much better: At every stage their behavior was rational. They just kept dying of food-borne illnesses. The idea is old: as early as Austin's expedition, Captain Ommaney, counting the number of tins left on Beechey Island, thought that some of Franklin's food might have been bad. The only problem with Cookman's version it is that it's about 10% facts (the facts being Goldner's problems, the large number of cans in the cairn on Beechey Island, and the known places where Franklin artifacts were found) and 90% Cookman -- and Cookman's writing shows his ability to substitute speculation for fact; his history of the expedition often includes detailed descriptions of events no one witnessed or could reconstruct from the available data (e.g. he actually tells us which hatches were bolted on Franklin's ships during the winter -- see p. 95).
Still, MSmith, p. 150, mentions the botulism theory with some approval. Satin, who knows more about food chemistry, however says on p. 136 that "Although this premise is theoretically possible, it is unlikely." He points out on p. 137 that at least some of the canned products would have been consumed on the trip from England to the Davis Straight -- but no one died in that time. This argues strongly that Goldner's cans were not directly poisoned.
That Goldner's products were inferior is certain; there were many complaints in the years after the Franklin expedition, and eventually the Admiralty imposed such stringent conditions on him that he appears to have been driven out of business. Even if his products weren't filled with lead or fatal bacteria, many of the cans probably contained spoiled food.
This would fit Beattie's autopsy of Marine Private William Braine, who was very tall for the period (about 6 feet/180 cm.) but utterly emaciated (about 40 kg/90 pounds); botulism frequently affects the digestion first, and other forms of food poisoning target the digestion even more.
In this regard, the Admiralty's decision to fit out a large expedition was probably largely to blame: The ships were heavily modernized and very up-to-date -- but, with so many hands, the crew could not possibly pick up enough food locally to significantly supplement their diets. (Indeed, it appears they didn't have anyone trained as a hunter.) They had to rely overwhelmingly on provisions taken from England -- which, whether lead-contaminated or not, whether poison or not, whether vermin-infested or not, lacked Vitamin C and were guaranteed to produce scurvy.
It seems to me that all the individual theories have contradictions. If the problem were lead alone, then there was enough food, so why cannibalism? If it were scurvy alone, again, why cannibalism? If it were botulism alone, then why were there so few deaths on Beechey Island? Hundreds of cans were discarded, yet only three men died, at least one of them primarily of tuberculosis. Even when the men abandoned the ships, the casualties were still only in the dozens. Goldner's cans may have been filled with junk, but at most a tiny fraction could have contained actual toxins. And if there were no toxins, then Cookman's diatribe against Goldner has no point.
One thing I note is that very many Arctic expeditions -- e.g. those of Kane, Hall, and Greeley, for which see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay," and the Karluk voyage, for which see "Captain Bob Bartlett" -- ended in madness and insubordination. Keating, p. 44, refers to "Arctic madness" as early as the time of Henry Hudson.
It probably started even earlier than that. Martin Frobisher, the first man to seek the Northwest Passage, came to blows with some of his captains during his third voyage to Baffin Bay (McGhee, pp. 143-145). Henry Hudson's crew set him adrift in Hudson's bay because he would not abandon the weaker members of the party (Mirsky, pp. 62-63; Woodman, pp. 36-40, thinks that the madness was actually Hudson's, not his men's, and suggests that "there seems little doubt that Hudson, whatever his skills as a seaman and his experience as an explorer, was a feeble commander. Setting aside the suggested ambiguities in his sexuality, his vacillations and his biddable character are enough to condemn him"). Williams, pp. 16-17, tells of exploring parties sent by the Hudson's Bay Company in which men -- often the leaders -- lost their minds; in a later expedition, two ship captains ended up quarrelling over something as trivial as who distributed ptarmigan brought in by Indians (Williams, p. 173), and the officers were accusing each other of plotting murder (Williams, p. 175).
The Arctic brought out the worst in men, and not just because of hunger and scurvy. Noah Hayes, who was on Charles Francis Hall's 1871 expedition, wrote "I believe that no man can retain the use of his faculties through one long [Arctic] night" (quoted in Fleming-North, p. 145).
Thomas Collinson, who edited the journals of his brother Richard Collinson (who spent five arctic winters in the search for Franklin), confessed "there appears to be someting in that particular service... that stirs up the bile and promotes bitter feelings" (Berton, p. 296); Berton himself says on pp. 392-393, "The history of Arctic exploration is riddled with irrational decisions and events."
That there was an Arctic disorder seems clear. I've not seen any writing explaining it, though -- seasonal affective disorder might play a part (the Inuit actually had a name for that; they called it "perlerorneq"; MSmith, p. 175) , but it hardly seems sufficient. Perhaps SAD plus incipient vitamin deficiency? Or calcium deficiency? In Robert Peary's later expedition, his Inuit were sometimes attacked by a disease called piblokto, which produced vicious and erratic behavior; it is now thought to be caused by lack of calcium (see Fleming-North, p. 359). Reading the accounts of Dr. Frederick A. Cook's arctic quest, I thought his behavior evidence of some sort of mental disturbance, and Bryce, p. 844, quotes another source who had the same thought. Whatever the "arctic madness" was, who is to say it didn't affect the Franklin expedition?
The various books I've consulted all seem quite certain about their theories. But it appears that, barring additional evidence, we simply cannot be sure. It is true that occasional relics continue to turn up, but they don't tell us much. Barring some other written record -- and, after 150 years, such a record is unlikely to be found (particularly since the detailed 1879 search by Frederick Schwatka, which most most of the remaining relics, was so thorough; Beattie, p. 99) -- we will remain as uncertain as the author of this song.
Probably the best conclusion is Satin's (p. 136), that scurvy, disease, malnutrition, and lead all played a part. No one item was fatal. Together, they were.
It's pretty useless at this stage to assign blame, but it's worth noting that not everyone thinks Franklin entirely at fault for the disaster. He has had a curious history -- the British at first treated him as a near-saint. Then came the reaction in which he was treated as a fool. Now there are various attempts to vindicate him. The truth probably lies somewhere in between. A wiser man would probably have done better with the materials he had at hand, but it was not Franklin who designed the expedition. That was done by John Barrow, the Admiralty Second Secretary. Cookman, p. 204, blames Barrow explicitly; Fleming-Barrow implies it repeatedly. Ironic, then, that I have never seen a version of this song which mentions Barrow.
Moss, p. 221, suggests that the Franklin Expedition suggested The Hunting of the Snark. I grant some faint similarities, but the differences are tremendous -- and it should be remembered that Carroll told us how the Snark came to be, and it was composed from the last line backward, with no hint of which way the plot would go.
For the later fates of some Franklin searchers, who then turned to North Pole exploration, see "Hurrah for Baffin's Bay." - RBW
Greenleaf/Mansfield states that 151C is a different song from 151A and 151B. The text is
We sailed away down Baffin Bay,
Where the nights and days were one;
And the Huskimaw in his skin canoe,
That was the only living soul.
The ice-king came with his eyes aflame,
Perched on our noble crew,
And his chilly breath was cold as death,
It pierced our warm hearts through.
- BS
It is noteworthy that Laws does not list that song with this piece, and most of the lines quoted above are not normally found in "Lady Franklin's Lament." The reference to Eskimos, however, *is* found in other Franklin versions, so (given the rarity of this version), I'm still lumping the songs for the moment.
Incidentally, though the word "Huskimaw" for "Eskimo" seems to be extinct today, it was common enough in the past that it gave rise to the name "husky" for arctic dogs. (Thanks to J. V. Arkle and Lyle Lofgren for bringing this to my attention.) - RBW
BibliographyLast updated in version 2.5
File: LK09

Lady Gay (I)


See The Wife of Usher's Well [Child 79] (File: C079)

Lady Greensleeves


See Greensleeves (File: ChWI239)

Lady Isabel [Child 261]


DESCRIPTION: Isabel's stepmother accuses Isabel of being "her father's whore," and tries to have her drink (poisoned) wine. At church; her mother advises her to take the poison. She bids farewell to her servants, drinks the poison, and dies. The stepmother goes mad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE:
KEYWORDS: death stepmother poison murder mother wine
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 261, "Lady Isabel" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 633-635, "Lady Isabel" (1 text)
Roud #3884
NOTES: Something seems to be wrong with this ballad; there are too many loose ends. While the stepmother's actions are perhaps understandable (she thinks Isabel's father pays more attention to his daughter than his new wife), Isabel's love beyond the sea appears for only one stanza, her mother's behavior is inexplicable, and Isabel is much too passive. Presumably something has been lost. - RBW
File: C261

Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4]


DESCRIPTION: A knight woos a lady. He will marry her if she runs away with him. He leads her to the seashore and threatens to drown/kill her as he has killed others before. She makes him turn his back and kills him instead. She bribes her parrot to keep her secret
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: elopement murder seduction bird lie
FOUND IN: Britain(England(All),Scotland) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So,SW) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland Australia; analogues in Poland, Germany, France, Scandinavia, Netherlands
REFERENCES (58 citations):
Child 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (8 texts)
Bronson 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (144 versions plus 2 in addenda)
Dixon XI, pp. 63-65, "The Water o' Wearie's Well" (1 text, plus an "Outlandish Knight" text on pp. 101-104 in the notes)
Greig #106, pp. 1-2, "May Colvin" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 225, "May Colvin" (2 texts)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 130-131, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #29}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp.14-34, "The False-Hearted Knight" (8 texts plus a fragment, 6 tunes; the "B" text is probably mixed as it starts with first person verses from the false knight) {Bronson's #50, #22, #35, #81, #5, #13}
Flanders/Brown, pp. 190-192, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #130}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 4-7, "The False-Hearted Knight"; pp. 109-111, "The Castle by the Sea"; pp. 129-131, "The Outlandish Knight" (3 texts, 3 tunes) {Bronson's #138 ,#57, #141}
Flanders-Ancient1, pp. 82-123, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (14 text plus 5 fragments, 12 tunes; the "C" and "D" texts have scraps from "The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" [Child 105], and the "J" fragment also appears to be mixed) {A=Bronson's #138, E=#141, F=#130, I=#60, N=#57}
Belden, pp. 5-16, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (8 texts plus variants)
Randolph 2, "Pretty Polly Ann" (4 texts plus a fragment, 3 tunes) {A=Bronson's #121, C=#86, E=#131}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 16-18, "Pretty Polly Ann" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 2A) {Bronson's #121}
Eddy 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (4 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #49, #89}
Gardner/Chickering 1, "Lady Isabe and the Elf-Knightl" (1 text plus a fragment and mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #92}
Davis-Ballads 3, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (17 texts plus 2 fragments, 7 tunes entitled 'Pretty Polly," "The Nine King's Daughters," "The Seven King's Daughters," "The False-Hearted Knight," "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight"; 9 more versions mentioned in Appendix A) { {Bronson's #103, #146, #23, #104, #2, #19, #24}
Davis-More 4, pp. 16-25, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, including one reconstructed, 2 tunes)
BrownII 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (7 texts)
Chappell-FSRA 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 fragments)
Hudson 1, pp. 61-66, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (3 texts plus a fragment)
Scarborough-NegroFS, pp. 43-45, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #120}
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 127-128, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 short text, apparently without a local title, consisting mostly of the ending with little of the initial seduction)
Brewster 3, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Creighton/Senior, pp. 2-9, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (4 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes) {Bronson's #74, #44, #42, #43}
Greenleaf/Mansfield 1, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #73}
Peacock, pp. 206-207, "The King's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 1, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 1, "Pretty Polly" (3 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #61}
Manny/Wilson 53, "The Gates of Ivory (Doors of Ivory)" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 72-76, "Doors of Ivory" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 53-59, ""Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts)
Wyman-Brockway I, p. 82, "Six Kings Daughters" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #109}
McNeil-SFB2, pp. 143-145, "The Seventh Sister" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 2-3, "False Sir John" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #102, which has two fewer verses and transcribes the tune rather differently}
OBB 8, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight"; 10, "May Colvin" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 10, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 texts)
Warner 41, "The Castle by the Sea" (1 text, 1 tune)
PBB 12, "Lady Isobel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 11, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28a}
Niles 4, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (3 texts, 2 tunes) {A=Bronson's#96}
SharpAp 3 "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (10 texts, 10 tunes) {Bronson's #110, #106, #9, #111, #116, #99, #118, #100, #135, #55}
Sharp/Karpeles-80E 4, "The Outlandish Knight (Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune, somewhat edited and expanded) {Bronson's #99}
Sandburg, pp. 60-61, "Pretty Polly" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #64}
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 80-81, "The Outlandish Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #39, though Bronson has a different title and no text}
SHenry H163, pp. 413-414, "The King o' Spain's Daughter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Ulster 13, "The Parrot Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 8, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #44}
Hodgart, p. 28 ,"Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
DBuchan 42, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
TBB 32, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (1 text)
JHCox 1, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (9 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #126}
JHCoxIIA, #IA-B, pp. 5-9, "The False Sir John," "Six Kings' Daughters (2 texts, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #128, #127}
MacSeegTrav 2, "Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 188, "Lady Isabel And The Elf Knight" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 23-26, "Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight" (2 texts)
BBI, ZN975, "Go fetch me some of your father's gold" (said to be combined from several Child ballads)
DT 4, OUTKNGHT* ELFKNGHT* WILLWTRE* KNGSPAIN* FLSESIRJ
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; notes to #427, ("The Water o' Wearie's Well") (1 text)
Roud #21
RECORDINGS:
Jumbo Brightwell, "The False-Hearted Knight" (on Lomax41, LomaxCD1741)
Bill Cassidy, "Pretty Polly" (on IRTravellers01)
Lena Bourne Fish, "Castle by the Sea" [excerpt] (on USWarnerColl01)
Mary Anne Haynes, "The Young Officer" (on Voice11)
Fred Jordan, "The Outlandish Knight (Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1) (on FJordan01, HiddenE)
Sam Larner, "The Outlandish Knight" (on SLarner01)
Jean Ritchie, "False Sir John" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #102}
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads 244, "The Outlandish Knight" ("An outlandish knight came from the north lands"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth c.21(15), Firth c.21(16), 2806 c.17(323), Firth c.26(230), Harding B 11(2886), Harding B 11(2887), Harding B 11(2889), Harding B 11(2890), Harding B 11(2891), "[The] Outlandish Knight"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Fair Eleanor (II)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
King of Spain's Daughter
Lady Ishbel and Her Parrot
King William's Son
The Courting of Aramalee
May Colvin
An Outlandish Rover
The Highway Robber
The Old Beau
Halewijn
The Seventh King's Daughter
Pretty Cold Rain
Sweet William
The Six Fair Maids
The Hinges of Ivory
The Prating Parrot
NOTES: Many theories have been offered as to the origin of this ballad (closely connected with the Franko-Dutch tale of Halwijn). The most widely known is Bugge's theory that this is a corrupt form of the tale of Judith, found in the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books of the Bible.
It should be noted, however, that the only actual parallel between Judith and Lady Isabel is that both end with the bad guy being killed by the heroine. Among the substantial differences between the tales:
Judith was a beautiful widow (Judith 8:2-4, 7) who was tricking (Judith 8:32-34) the invading general Holofernes (who, we might note, is clearly fictional -- the whole book of Judith is patently unhistorical, as is shown by its reference in 1:1 to Nebuchadnezzar who ruled the Assyrians in Ninevah. Nebuchadnezzar was a Chaldean of Babylon, and his father had in fact destroyed Ninevah before Nebuchadnezzar took the throne). Unlike the tale of Judith, in "Lady Isabel" the man tricks the inexperienced girl.
Judith was trying to save her people; the girl in this song is just trying to save her skin.
Judith cut off Holofernes's head with his own sword (Judith 13:6-8). The girl in this song of course threw her betrayer off a cliff.
A comprehensive study of the origins of this piece is offered by Holger Olof Nygard in "Ballad Source Study: Child Ballad No. 4 as Exemplar" (first printed in the Journal of American Folklore, LXV, 1952; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, The Critics and the Ballad, pp. 189- 203). Nygard concludes that none of the theories of origin is accurate, and I heartily agree. This piece stands on its own.
Peter Underwood, in A Gazetteer of English, Scottish & Irish Ghosts, p. 383, associates this song with Lendalfoot in Ayreshire, and claims that "mysterious shrill cries and strangely fading screams are still heard there." One has to suspect that this is one of those legends that arose after the song. - RBW
MacColl & Seeger cite a German broadside, c. 1550. - PJS
Of course, most of the alleged parallels to this piece (few of which are *truly* parallel) are in German and Scandinavian literature. As a matter of fact. a brief item in Sing Out!, Volume 29, #1, p. 10, suggests that the story runs the other way -- that is, that a German folktale derives from this song. In this tale, a man makes a deal with the devil that makes him (or his music) irresistible to women. The devil's price is that the fiend will get every twelfth soul. The man ravishes and kills eleven women, but when he attempts to take the twelfth, she or her brother (or her brother in disguise, or something) manages to kill the murderer instead. As the murderer dies, a voice is heard on the wind, "The twelfth soul is mine." - RBW
Also collected and sung by Kevin Mitchell, "False Lover John" (on Kevin and Ellen Mitchell, "Have a Drop Mair," Musical Tradition Records MTCD315-6 CD (2001)) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C004

Lady Ishbel and Her Parrot


See Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight [Child 4] (File: C004)

Lady Jean


DESCRIPTION: Jean's parents arrange her wedding to Lord Dacre. Jean sends for Umphreville, her lover, to rescue her. Dacre is greeted by Jean's parents. The priest prepares for the ceremony. Dacre finds Jean has eloped with Umphreville. Her parents rage and mourn.
AUTHOR: Robert White (source: Whitelaw and Greig)
EARLIEST DATE: 1842 (_The Local Historian's Table Book for Northumberland and Durham_, according to Greig and Whitelaw)
KEYWORDS: elopement love wedding rescue father mother sister
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greig #156, p. 1, "Otterburn" (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 1027, "Otterburn" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ... with [an anonymous] Supplement (Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, 1876), pp. 520-522, "Lady Jean"
Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Ballads (Glasgow, 1845), pp. 67-68, "Lady Jean"
Roud #6305
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John of Hazelgreen" [Child 293] (plot)
cf. "Nancy Dawson" (plot)
NOTES: We learn the story by a dialog between Lady Jean and her confidant and sister, Ellen.
The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ... adds an Addenda, edited anonymously (obviously not Percy (1729-1811) since it includes references to Richardson's 1842-1846 The Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurences ...)
Greig: "Our version of this ballad has been communicated by Miss B.I. Fowlie, Methlick, who learned it from her mother. I find that it was written by Robert White, and appeared originally in 'The Local Historian's Table Book for Northumberland and Durham' (1842) [Moses Aaron Richardson, The Local Historian's Table Book of Remarkable Occurences ... connected with the counties of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland and Durham, (Newcastle-upon-Tyne,1842-1846)].... Miss Fowlie's copy of the ballad represents the version that has begun to be traditional. Comparing it with the original, we find that while some verses have dropped out, changes in the text are few and unimportant - a fact that indicates an accuracy of memory much above the average."
The Reliques of Ancient English Poetry ...: "Who the author of this Ballad is, I know not: it appeared in Richardson's Table Book, with the initials R.W. appended to it."
Whitelaw has the author as Robert White, confirming Greig. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD1027

Lady Keith's Lament


See When the King Comes O'er the Water (Lady Keith's Lament) (File: Hogg1027)

Lady Leroy, The [Laws N5]


DESCRIPTION: A girl and her lover want to escape her father. She disguises herself and buys the Lady Leroy from her father. The father sends a ship to intercept them, but the girl captures her father's ship and sends it home. She and her lover continue on their way
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 (Cecil Sharp collection); +1895 (JAFL8)
KEYWORDS: love escape disguise ship
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,So) Canada(Ont,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Laws N5, "The Lady Leroy"
Belden, pp. 180-182, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
FSCatskills 58, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 137-138, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Dean, pp. 33-34, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 63, "Lady Leroy" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
JHCox 118, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text)
SharpAp 155, "Sally and Her Lover, or Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H214, pp. 445-446, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greenleaf/Mansfield 111, "The Lady Uri" (1 text)
Peacock, pp. 208-209, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 25, "The Lady Leroy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 440, LADYLROY LADYLRO2
Roud #1889
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Lady Leroy" (AFS 4205 B1 and 4205 A2 [last verse], 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell); "The Fair Captive [wrong title, fragment]" (AFS 4205 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
NOTES: The LC recordings are a bit of a mess. The one identified as "The Fair Captive" has numbers listed as AFS 4205 A1 and A2, but clicking on any of the audio links brings down only A2, which is definitely "Lady Leroy" or a fragment thereof. The listing under "The Lady Leroy," on the other hand, has a full version, 4205 B1, plus the same fragment, which is really the last verse of "The Lady Leroy." "The Fair Captive" is actually recorded, in full, on AFS 4201 B1. Got that? - PJS
File: LN05

Lady Lived on the Muirland Hills, A


See The Widow of Westmoreland's Daughter (File: DTwidwst)

Lady Maisry (II)


See Mother, Mother, Make My Bed (File: VWL071)

Lady Maisry [Child 65]


DESCRIPTION: The Scottish heroine loves an English lord above all Scots. Her family, learning of her love and (in most versions) her pregnancy, prepare to burn her. She sends tokens to her love, but she has been burnt before he can arrive. (He takes bitter vengeance)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1822
KEYWORDS: love separation death hate hardheartedness family execution revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland) US(Ap,SE)
REFERENCES (15 citations):
Child 65, "Lady Maisry" (11 texts)
Bronson 65, "Lady Maisry" (13 versions, though some of these are really "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed")
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 448-449, "Lady Maisry" (notes only)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 117-119, "Bonnie Susie Cleland" (1 text)
Davis-Ballads 16, "Lady Maisry" (2 fragments, the first probably this but the second is only the verse of the messenger boy swimming the river; I suspect it's actually from "Little Musgrave," or "Mother, Mother," or "Lord Lovell," or some other such source)
SharpAp 17 "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 2 tunes){Bronson's #13, #12}
Sharp-100E 10, "Lady Maisry" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Leach, pp. 208-213, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts)
Friedman, p. 74, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
OBB 73, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
PBB 40, "Janet (Lady Maisry)" (1 text)
Niles 26, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 2 tunes; the second is short, and appears to be a mixed text)
Gummere, pp. 218-222+352, "Lady Maisry" (1 text)
DBuchan 11, "Lady Maisry", 29, "Lady Maisry" (2 texts, 1 tune in appendix) {Bronson's #1}
DT 65, SCLELAND* LMAISRY *
Roud #45
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Stolen Bride" (plot)
cf. "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" (lyrics)
cf. "Kafoozalem (I)" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Bonnie Susie Cleland
Sweet Maisry
Lord Dillard and Lady Flora
NOTES: Bronson, Roud, and Scarborough, and probably others, have filed "Mother, Mother, Make My Bed" with "Lady Maisry," but that ballad (composed largely of floating elements) lacks key plot elements, notably the reasons for, and fact of, the girl's condemnation and death. It appears to be a separate song, though perhaps composed on the fragments of this song.
Interestingly, it appears that every text Bronson has of "Mother, Mother" is part of his "C" tune group, and every text in the "C" group is either "Mother, Mother" or is too short to allow identification. - RBW
File: C065

Lady Margaret (I)


See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lady Margaret (II)


See Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)

Lady Margaret (III)


See Tam Lin [Child 39] (File: C039)

Lady Margaret and King William


See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lady Margaret and Sweet William (I)


See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lady Margaret and Sweet William (II)


See Sweet William's Ghost [Child 77] (File: C077)

Lady Margot and Love Henry


See Young Hunting [Child 68] (File: C068)

Lady Margot and Sweet Willie


See Fair Margaret and Sweet William [Child 74] (File: C074)

Lady Mary (The Sad Song)


DESCRIPTION: "He came from his palace grand And he came to my cottage door... But I was nothing to him, Though he was the world to me." She desperately loved him; now he is dead, but she has no excuse for mourning. She wonders if, in heaven, he will still ignore her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (collected by Sandburg)
KEYWORDS: death love beauty
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Randolph 698, "The Sad Song" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 522-524, "The Sad Song" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 698)
DT, LADYMARY*
Roud #6358
RECORDINGS:
Bud Skidmore, "The Sad Song" (Columbia 15761-D, 1932)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "We Met, 'Twas In a Crowd"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Palace Grand
NOTES: This has been quite popular in the folk revival; it appears that most if not all of these versions derive from the May Kennedy McCord collected by Randolph and Hunter; she also gave it to Evelyn Beers. Bush's printing also derives from McCord. Thus although there are a few other versions of the song known (from Owens and Sandburg), if you've heard this song, the version you know almost certainly comes from McCord. - RBW
File: R698

Lady Mary Ann (by Robert Burns)


See A-Growing (He's Young But He's Daily A-Growing) [Laws O35] (File: LO35)

Lady o' the Dainty Doonby, The


See The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)

Lady of Arngosk, The [Child 224]


DESCRIPTION: Fragment: "The Highlandmen has a' come down... They've stowen away the bonny lass, The Lady of Arngosk." They dress her in her silken gown, and the Highland leader draws his sword and bids her come. They tie her hands, but she scorns them
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1823 (Sharpe)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection clothes abduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Child 224, "The Lady of Arngosk" (1 text)
Roud #4019
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Eppie Morrie" [Child 223] (plot)
NOTES: Child's notes to this are about twelve times as long as the actual three-stanza text (the only fragment recovered, and likely the only one which ever will be recovered), and give the apparent background to the song. The lyrics itself are so fragmentary, however, that they could well be a minor adaption of some similar piece such as "Eppie Morrie" [Child 223]. For actual historical examples of events similar to this, see the notes to "Eppie Morrie." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C224

Lady of Carlisle, The [Laws O25]


DESCRIPTION: Two brothers court a lady. Unable to choose between them, she decides to find out who is braver. She throws her fan into a den of lions and says she will marry whoever recovers it. The sea captain does so; she offers herself as the prize
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1807 (various broadside, National Library of Ireland I 39988b4: Belfast 1807-1837 2, according to John Moulden)
KEYWORDS: contest courting clothes marriage animal
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,SE) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(So)) Ireland
REFERENCES (22 citations):
Laws O25, "The Lady of Carlisle"
Flanders/Olney, pp. 207-208, "In Castyle there Lived a Lady" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cohen/Seeger/Wood, p. 36, "Lady of Carlisle" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 66, "The Bold Lieutenant" (4 texts, 4 tunes)
SHenry H474, pp. 488-489, "The Glove and the Lions" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 49, "London City" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 36, "The Bold Lieutenant" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Creighton-NovaScotia 43, "Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 34-35, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 22, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 133, "The Lion's Den" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig #68, pp. 1-2, "The Lions' Den" (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 1056, "The Lions' Den" (15 texts, 10 tunes)
Ord, pp. 393-394, "The Lion's Den" (1 text)
BrownII 89, "The Glove" (2 texts)
Hudson 29, pp. 139-141, "The Faithful Lover, or The Hero Rewarded" (1 text)
Brewster 59, "The Lady's Fan" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 146, "Lady Of Carlisle" (1 text)
Darling-NAS, pp. 130-131, "Carolina Lady" (1 text)
DT 335, LDYCRLIL* LDYCRL2*
ADDITIONAL: _Sing Out_ magazine, Volume 22, #5 (1973), p, 4, "The Carolina Lady" (1 text, 1 tune, the Dillard Chandler version)
W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1881 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol II, pp. 126-127, "The Lion's Den" (1 tune)
Roud #396
RECORDINGS:
Eddie Butcher, "The Fan" (on IREButcher01)
Dillard Chandler, "Carolina Lady" (on Chandler01)
Teresa Maguire, "The Lion's Den" (on FSB8)
Basil May, "Lady of Carlisle" (LC-1587/AAFS 1702, rec. 1937)
New Lost City Ramblers, "Lady of Carlisle" (on NLCR03, NLCR12, NLCRCD1) (on NLCR16)
Pete Seeger, "Down in Carlisle" (on PeteSeeger16)
Doug Wallin, "The Bold Lieutenant" (on Wallins1)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 16(327a), "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.19(28)[some words illegible], "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded"; Harding B 28(187), "Faithful Lover" ("Near to St. James's there lived a lady"); Harding B 17(167b), "The Lions' Den"; Firth c.13(35) View 1 of 2, "The Bold Lieutenant in the Lions' Den"; Harding B 16(29a), "Bold Lieutenant"
LOCSinging, as102520, "The Faithful Lover" or "The Hero Rewarded," J. Catnach (London), 19C
Murray, Mu23-y1:087, "The Bold Lieutenant in the Lion's Den," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When I Was Young I Was Well Beloved" (tune, per GreigDuncan5)
cf. "Jolie Fleur de Rosier (Lovely Flower of the Rose-Tree)" (theme)
cf. "Isabeau S'y Promene (Isabel)" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
In Roslyn Isles There Lived a Lady
Two Brothers in the Army
NOTES: Kennedy notes, "Lions were kept at the Tower of London from the time of Henry III [reigned 1216-1272] until 1834." Sam Henry dates this to an actual event in the reign of Francis (I? -- reigned 1515-1547) of France. This is more probable than most of these derivations (how many people in the world are that silly?), but as usual, it cannot be proved.
The notes in Brown posit a different original, claiming (following Barry?) that it originated in Spain, spread to France and Italy, and inspired Schiller ("Der Handschuh"), Browning, and Leigh Hunt ("The Glove and the Lions"). Belden (The Vulgar Ballad, p. 6) thinks he finds traces of a broadside published between 1814 and 1834. Again, proof is lacking.
Leigh Hunt (who is remembered mostly for nauseating generations of schoolchildrem with "Abou Ben Adhem") gives a rather different ending to the story in "The Glove and the Lions." As given in [no author listed], The Household Treasury of English Song, T. Nelson and Sons, 1872, pp. 180-181, Hunt's poem begins
King Francis was a hearty king, and loved a royal sport;
And one day, as his lions strove, sat looking on the court:
The nobles filled the benches round, the ladies by their side,
And 'mongst them Count de Lorge, with one he hoped to make his bride.
And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show --
Valor and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.
The poem goes on to describe the raving of the lions. De Lorge's "beauteous, lively dame" declared that he is "as brave as brave can be," and would do anything to show his love for her. So:
She dropped her glove to prove his love -- then looked on him and smiled;
He bowed, and in a moment leaped among the lions wild:
The leap was quick, return was quick; he soon regained his place,
Then threw the glove, but not with love, right in the lady's face.
"Well done!" cried Francis; "bravely done!" and he rose from where he sat:
"No love," quoth he, "but vanity, sets love a task like that!" - RBW
Christie's version ends "It was not long until the king got notice That two of his lions had been slain; Yet he was not at all displeased, But gave him honour for the same. He advanced him from a first Lieutenant, And made him Admiral of the Blue, And soon this lady and he were married; This lets one see what love can do." Has anyone besides Christie ever reported anything like this? - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LO25

Lady of Dun, The


DESCRIPTION: A harper comes to a castle. His playing wakes the lady. She orders him thrown into the sea. Afterwards, she can no longer sleep, and dies in terror, seeing always his eyes and foam-flecked beard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: murder death drowning dream harp
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan2 188, "The Lady of Dun" (1 text)
Roud #5840
NOTES: The GreigDuncan2 text is fragmentary but Greig reconstructed the plot as follows [the square brackets] bracket what we know from the actual text:
before st. 1, 'A harper came to the castle and his playing awoke the lady.'
[st. 1: "The owner's heart was as hard as stane, And the lady's heart was harder I ween."]
before st. 2, 'She orders him to be thrown into the den.'
[st. 2: "Harping at this time in the morn, Is sure a thing that cannot be borne."]
'A girl pleads for him' before st.3,
[st. 3: the girl is described]
[st. 4: The lady calls the girl senseless and has the harper thrown into the sea for waking her.]
and at the end, 'They obeyed her behests. He sunk in the deep, but the lady could never mair sleep, and died in terror, seeing always his eyes and foam-flecked beard.'"
Robertson, quoted by GreigDuncan2, tells that Greig at first "thought it was an attempt to make an imitation of an old ballad but after studying it thought it had been from an older ballad but we never got any light on it." How did Greig come up with his patches?
In any case, this augmented text is the basis for the description. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2188

Lady of the Lake, The (The Banks of Clyde II) [Laws N41]


DESCRIPTION: The singer walks up to a girl and asks her why she is weeping. She says that the Lady of the Lake, carrying her true love, was wrecked off Newfoundland. He tells her that Willie is dead, and gives her his last message, but then reveals that he is Willie
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan5); c.1850 (broadside, Bodleian 2806 c.16(54))
KEYWORDS: love death wreck ship disguise
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
May 11, 1833 - The "Lady of the Lake" strikes an iceberg off Newfoundland and sinks, taking with her most of her passengers
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland
REFERENCES (8 citations):
Laws N41, "The Lady of the Lake (The Banks of Clyde)"
Greig #88, pp. 2-3, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 1045, "The Lady of the Lake" (3 texts, 1 tune)
Doerflinger, pp. 302-303, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
SHenry H765, pp. 312-313, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 928-930, "Liza Gray" (1 texts, 2 tunes)
Mackenzie 67, "The Lady of the Lake" (1 text)
DT 466, LADYLAKE
Roud #1886
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.16(54), "The Lady of the Lake," G. Jacques (Manchester), c.1850; also Firth b.27(297), Firth c.12(230), "The Lady of the Lake"
Murray, Mu23-y3:010, "The Lady of the Lake," unknown, 19C
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake" (subject) and notes there
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] and references there
cf. "The Wreck of the Lady Shearbrooke" (plot)
cf. "Thomas and Nancy" [Laws K15] (theme)
NOTES: Leyden: "Total saved 34; perished 197; total 234" with a list of those saved, including Captain Grant and at least one William. - BS
For more details on the casualties, see "The Loss of the Lady of the Lake." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LN41

Lady of the Land (Here's a Poor Widow)


DESCRIPTION: "Here comes a poor (woman/widow) from (Babylon/baby-land), WIth three small children in her hand. One can brew, the other can bake, The other can make a pretty round cake.... Pray, ma'am, will you take one in?"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1898 (Gomme)
KEYWORDS: cook children poverty playparty
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) Ireland
REFERENCES (4 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1598, "The Widow of Sandilands" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leyden 19, "Here's a Poor Widow from Sandy Row" (1 text)
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #641, p. 256, "(Here comes a poor woman from baby-land)"
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 85, "(Here's a poor widow from Sandisland)" (1 text)
Roud #12975
File: BGMG641

Lady of York, The


See The Cruel Mother [Child 20] (File: C020)

Lady Turned Serving-Man, The


See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Lady Uri, The


See The Lady Leroy [Laws N5] (File: LN05)

Lady's Fall, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer warns listeners against sex before marriage. A lady becomes pregnant by her love, who deserts her. Once the babe is born, she dies, only to have her lover kill himself with sadness
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1765 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: love sex pregnancy childbirth family death infidelity burial
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Percy/Wheatley III, pp. 139-145, "The Lady's Fall" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1753, "Mark well my heavy doleful Tale"
NOTES: Hales believes this to be by the same author as "The Children in the Wood (The Babes in the Woods)" [Laws Q34] - RBW
File: Perc3139

Lady's Fan, The


See The Lady of Carlisle [Laws O25] (File: LO25)

Lady's Waiting Man, The


DESCRIPTION: A beautiful girl falls in love with her father's servant-man who waits on table. She faints and when she recovers asks "in the kitchen carry me." When he brings her "dainties" she kisses him and professes her love. He is happy to wait on her.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1958 (Peacock)
KEYWORDS: love beauty servant
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Peacock, pp. 545-546, "The Lady's Waiting Man" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6460
File: Pea545

Ladybug, Ladybug, Fly Away Home


DESCRIPTION: "Ladybug/Ladybird, Ladybug/Ladybird, Fly away home, Your house is on fire, Your children do roam." The extended version may instruct the insect to go to Flanders or elsewhere, and fly to the singer's love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1951 (Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: bug home fire
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Baring-Gould-MotherGoose #467, p. 209, "(Lady Bird, Lady Bird)" (a short version in the text with a long addedum in the notes)
Opie-Oxford2 297, "Ladybird, Ladybird" (1 text)
Montgomerie-ScottishNR 15, "Ladybird" (1 very full text)
MHenry-Appalachians, p. 243, (no title) (1 short text)
ADDITIONAL: Peter and Iona Opie, _I Saw Esau: Traditional Rhymes of Youth_, #164, "(Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home)" (1 text)
Roud #16215
NOTES: Although most if not all of us think of this as a song about a bug, the second half of Opie's version is interesting: All the ladybug's children are gone except "little Ann(e), And she has crept under the warming pan."
The moment I saw that, I couldn't help but think of the Glorious Revolution of 1689 and the Hannoverian Succession of 1714. In 1689, it was alleged that James the Old Pretender had been snuck into the Queen's birth chamber in a warming pan, and had the boy been accepted as legitimate, then Anne, the last of the Stuarts, would never have been Queen.
What's more, the first known mention of this item, from Tom Thumb's Pretty Song Book, is from a period within living memory of the Hannoverian Succession.
I grant that it is almost certainly coincidence. But it's an interesting coincidence. Most of the political meanings assigned to nursery rhymes are based on completely undemonstrable equvialents and hidden names. Here, the names are not hidden. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: MSNR15

Ladye Diamond


See Lady Diamond [Child 269] (File: C269)

Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs, The


DESCRIPTION: When the king returns from traveling, his daughter welcomes him. A lord calls her very fair; her stepmother turns her to a worm. Child Wynd arrives and, with difficulty, transforms her back. He turns the queen into a toad
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1812 (Bell); Child estimates the date of the "Hagg Worm" version as c. 1775
KEYWORDS: animal magic royalty jealousy beauty father stepmother revenge
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Child 34 Appendix, "The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs" (1 text plus a "more popular" version, "The Hagg Worm," in the addenda to volume IV)
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 180-181, "The Laidley Worm" (1 slightly defective text, 1 tune)
ST C034A (Partial)
Roud #3176
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Kemp Owyne" [Child 34]
NOTES: Child prints this ballad as an appendix to #34, "Kemp Owyne." There are, however, just enough known versions (including Stokoe's, with a tune of uncertain origin) that we split them.
The reference to a King based in, or at least leaving his daughter in, Bamborough, is puzzling; being near the Scots border (but never in Scotland), it is a rather unsafe place; in any case, few Kings of England spent much time in the north, except in cases such as that of Henry VI when he was a fugitive. If, then, we assume a King who campaigned in Scotland, had daughters, and had a second wife, the obvious choice is Edward I (reigned 1272-1307). Which seems awfully early....
The theme of a beautiful daughter and jealous stepmother and a transformation is of course commonplace, with the best known version being "Snow White" (which is from the Grimm collection: #53, Schneewittchen, printed 1812, from the Hassenpflug family). - RBW
File: C034A

Laidley Worm, The


See The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heughs (File: C034A)

Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea, The [Child 36]


DESCRIPTION: The singer's mother died when he was seven, and his stepmother enchanted him into a "laily worm" and his sister into a "machrel." When their father learns the truth, he forces her to restore the children, then burns her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1802/3 (Skene ms.)
KEYWORDS: family father children stepmother magic shape-changing rescue monster
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 36, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
OBB 14, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
PBB 20, "The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea" (1 text)
DT 36, LAIDLEYW
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, p. 127, "The Lailly Worm" (1 text)
Roud #3968
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Allison Gross" [Child 35] (theme)
NOTES: Child's text is badly and multiply defective, but the lack of materials makes restoration well-nigh impossible. Child's conjectures as to what is missing seem apt. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C036

Laird o Cockpen, The


DESCRIPTION: "The Laird o Cockpen, he's proud and he's great... He wanted a wife his braw hoose tae keep...." He comes to court the noble but poor Jean, who at first turns him down, but then thinks of his wealth and chooses to wed him
AUTHOR: Adapted by Lady Nairn?
EARLIEST DATE: 1821
KEYWORDS: courting marriage money nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Logan, pp. 355-359, "The Laird of Cockpen" (1 text)
DT, COCKLAIR*
ADDITIONAL: Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #333, pp. 563-564, "The Laird o' Cockpen" (by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne)
ST Log355 (Full)
Roud #2859
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Squire and the Gipsy" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Tipperty's Jean (Ord, pp. 283-284)
Parody on Laird o' Cockpen (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(103), "Parody on Laird o' Cockpen" ("The Laird o Cockpen he's puir and he's duddy"), unknown, c. 1875)
New Year (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(104), "The New Year" ("And now we're to enter another New Year, When little is thought on but whiskey and beer"), unknown, c. 1875)
The Laird of D--mm-- (broadside NLScotland, ABS.10.203.01(102), "The Laird of D--mm--e," unknown, c. 1835)
"Incompetence of Politicians" (Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(6a), [no title] ("Oh! hae ye heard o' an unprincipled squad"), unknown, n.d.)
File: Log355

Laird o Drum, The [Child 236]


DESCRIPTION: The Laird o Drum, instead of wooing a noble lady, chooses to court a poor working girl. All his relatives oppose this, but he notes that the girl is willing to work; instead of costing him money (as his previous wife did), she will help him earn it
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1803 (Skene ms.; cf. Herd 1776)
KEYWORDS: courting poverty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1665-1710 - Life of Margaret Coutts, second wife of Alexander Irvine of Drum (previously married, in 1643, to Mary Gordon of Huntley. Drum died in 1687)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber,Bord)) US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Child 236, "The Laird o Drum" (6 texts)
Bronson 36, "The Laird o Drum" (26 versions+1 in addenda)
Greig #46, pp. 1-2, "The Laird o' Drum" (2 texts)
GreigDuncan4 835, "The Laird o' Drum" (24 texts, 16 tunes)
Dixon VIII, pp. 53-56, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 300-303, "The Laird of Drum" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #26}
Creighton-Maritime, p. 28, "The Laird O'Drum" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 4-9, "The Laird o' Drum" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
DT 236, LAIRDDRM*
Roud #247
RECORDINGS:
Lucy Stewart, "The Laird o' Drum" (on FSBBAL2) (on LStewart1)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
I Canna Wash
NOTES: Bodleian, 2806 c.11(7), "The Laird o' Drum" ("The laird o' Drum is a hunting gane"), unknown, n.d. could not be downloaded and verified. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C236

Laird o Logie, The [Child 182]


DESCRIPTION: (Logie) is in prison awaiting death; Margaret would save him. She petitions the King; he will not free Logie for all the gold in Scotland. (The queen/Margaret) (steals tokens from the King) and orders that Logie be freed.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: prison escape trick nobility love mercy help
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Child 182, "The Laird o Logie" (5 texts, 1 tune) {Bronson's #1}
Bronson 182, "The Laird o Logie" (3 versions)
GreigDuncan2 247, "The Young Laird o' Logie" (3 texts)
Leach, pp. 493-495, "The Laird o Logie" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #422, "The Laird o' Logie" (1 text)
Roud #81
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Gallant Laird o' Young Logie
Young Logie
NOTES: In 1591, the Earl of Bothwell tried to capture King James VI of Scotland, and James Weymis of Logie was implicated in the plot. One of Queen Anne's maids, Margaret, loved him; she forged an order to have him questioned, and used it to help him escape. James's anger was appeased by the Queen, and he pardoned Logie, who then married Margaret - RBW
Last updated in version 2.4
File: C182

Laird o Roslin's Daughter, The


See Captain Wedderburn's Courtship [Child 46] (File: C046)

Laird o Udny, The


See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

Laird o Windy Wa's, The


See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

Laird o' Aboyne, The


See The Earl of Aboyne [Child 235] (File: C235)

Laird o' Drum (II), The


See Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)

Laird o' Grant, The


DESCRIPTION: Laird of Grant goes to a home, disguised as a haughty beggar, intending to win a daughter of the house. Her parents would have the beggar dismissed but the girl would feed him. They would have her stay home. She would go with Laird of Grant.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: courting disguise begging father mother
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan2 276, "The Laird o' Grant" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5853
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Beggar Man
NOTES: GreigDuncan2 assumes that the original version has the daughter ride off with the beggar after she would feed him and before they would have her stay home. That might explain how she recognizes the beggar as Laird o' Grant. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2276

Laird o' Leys, (The)


See The Baron o Leys [Child 241] (File: C241)

Laird o' Musselburgh Toon, The


DESCRIPTION: The drunken laird gave the bellman a crown to offer "a hundred marks Scots" to anyone who would let him "gae thro' this vault to Edinburgh toon"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: money drink
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1927, "The Laird o' Musselburgh Toon" (1 fragment)
Roud #13036
NOTES: Musselburgh is near Edinburgh. - BS
Note that a mark was two-thirds of a pound, but a Scots pound was only a fraction of an English pound. A hundred Scots marks was not a trivial sum, but neither was it as large as this would be if it were English money. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81927

Laird o' the Dainty Doonby, The


See The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)

Laird o' Windywa's, The


See Let Me In This Ae Nicht (File: DTaenich)

Laird of Dalziel's Leman, The


DESCRIPTION: Dialog between father and daughter. The father laments, "Dool and wae's me, Jenny (x2), That e'er I lived to see that we Dalziel's leman should be." The daughter protests that he swept her off her feet, and points to her son
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873 (sent by James Hunter to Furnival, according to Lyle)
KEYWORDS: sex father children bastard
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp, 220-221, "[The Laird of Dalziel's Leman]" (1 text, a very defective version partially recalled by James Hunter)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "When Will Ye Gang Awa'? (Huntingtower)" [Laws O23] (tune, according to Hunter)
File: AdLaDaLe

Laird of the Denty Doon Bye, The


See The Dainty Doonby (File: K179)

Laird of Wariston, The [Child 194]


DESCRIPTION: Wariston (accuses his wife of adultery and) strikes her. She avenges herself by killing him with the help of a servant. Lady Wariston is arrested and condemned. (She begs the King to lessen her sentence to beheading. He wishes she did not have to die.)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Kinloch)
KEYWORDS: murder revenge adultery accusation punishment execution nobility royalty
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
July 5, 1600 - Execution of the former Jean Livingston, Lady Wariston (according to Birrell)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Child 194, "The Laird of Wariston" (3 texts)
Leach, pp. 528-533, "The Laird of Wariston" (2 texts)
DT 194, WARSTON
Roud #3876
NOTES: Child reports that this event is historical, but the judicial records of Lady Wariston's trial are lost. This ballad is therefore the only evidence of the motive for her murder of her husband.
This certainly appears to be a folk ballad, but it also appears to be extinct. Child knew three texts, all damaged, and the song has not been collected since. Ewan MacColl has a tune for it, but it's nearly certain that it came out of his own head. (Or, more correctly, is a modification of a tune for another ballad -- e.g. it's much like the tune I know for "The Dowie Dens o' Yarrow.")
Child treats this as one ballad, and given its lack of survival in tradition, there is no reason to break it up into two entries -- but I think it likely that it is in fact *two* ballads, one represented by Child's A and B texts and the third by his C text.
There are several reasons for this. The forms of the stanzas are different (though we might note that A and B also differ from each other). There are only a few common words, and most of them commonplace ("O Wariston, I wad that ye wad sink for sin").
Most crucial, though, is the complete difference in motive. In the A/B text, Wariston strikes his wife over a trivial quarrel. In C, however, Lady Wariston is a child bride (her age is given as fifteen at the time of her marriage; the real Lady Wariston seems to have been about nineteen). Shortly after their marriage, Wariston goes to sea; before he returns a year later, she bears a child.
Upon his return, Wariston accuses his lady of adultery and casts her out. The murder is her retaliation. - RBW
File: C194

Laird's Wedding, The


See The Nobleman's Wedding (The Faultless Bride; The Love Token) [Laws P31] (File: LP31)

Lake Huron's Rock-Bound Shore


See The Persian's Crew [Laws D4] (File: LD04)

Lake Huron's Rockbound Shore


See The Persian's Crew [Laws D4] (File: LD04)

Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33]


DESCRIPTION: Willie Leonard and a friend visit Lake Cool Finn. Willie dives in first, and swims to an island, but warns his friend not to follow, warning of "deep and false water...." When Willie tries to swim back, he vanishes (to fairyland?). He is mourned by many
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1873
KEYWORDS: death drowning
FOUND IN: US(MA,NE) Ireland Britain(England,Scotland) Canada(Newf)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws Q33, "The Lake of Cool Finn"
Greig #114, p. 1, "The Loch o' Shilin" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 228, "The Loch o' Shilin" (3 texts, 3 tunes)
Leach, pp. 732-733, "Willie Leonard or the Lake of Cool Finn" (1 text)
FSCatskills 72, "The Lakes of Col Flynn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 324, "The Lakes of Shallin" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H176, p. 146, "Willie Lennox" (1 text, 1 tune)
Munnelly/Deasy-Lenihan 35, "The Lake of Coolfin" (1 text, 1 tune)
McBride 44, "Johnny Bathin" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 15-16, "Lakes of Cold Finn" (1 text)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "The Lakes of Cold Finn" (source notes only)
DT 541, LKCOLFIN* LKCOLFI2*
Roud #189
RECORDINGS:
Amy Birch, "Royal Comrade" (on Voice11)
Patsy Flynn, "Willie Leonard" (on IRHardySons)
Tom Lenihan, "The Lake of Coolfin" (on IRTLenihan01)
Mary Reynolds, "The Lakes of Shallin" (on FSB7)
Cathie Stewart, "The Lakes of Shillin" (on SCStewartsBlair01)
Scan Tester, "The Lakes of Coalflin" (on Voice03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 b.11(260), "The Lakes of Cold Finn," H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 20(88), "The Lakes of Cold Finn"; 2806 b.11(31), Firth b.26(168), Harding B 11(1376), "Willie Leonard"
LOCSinging, as107400, "The Lakes of Cold Finn," unknown, 19C
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Billy Henry
NOTES: The Loch o' Shilin versions expand on the mother "tearing her hair" by adding father and sweetheart. Greig comments that his version was sung to the tune of "Villikens and his Dinah." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LQ33

Lake of Coolfin, The


See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Lake of Ponchartrain, The [Laws H9]


DESCRIPTION: A young man (Union soldier?), lost in the south, is taken in by a Creole girl. He asks her to marry; she cannot, for she is promised to another who is far away (at sea?). He promises to remember her always
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Pound)
KEYWORDS: courting separation promise
FOUND IN: US(Ap,MW,NE,So) Ireland Canada(Mar,West)
REFERENCES (9 citations):
Laws H9, "The Lake of Ponchartrain"
Randolph 882, "The Ponsaw Train" (1 text, 1 tune)
Larkin, pp. 46-48, "On the Lake of the Poncho Plains" (1 text, 1 tune)
LPound-ABS, 55, pp. 127-128, "The Creole Girl" (1 text)
Gardner/Chickering 45, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Creighton-NovaScotia 137, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
Manny/Wilson 78, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H619, pp. 373-374, "The Lakes of Ponchartrain" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 649, PONTCHAR PONCHAR2 PONCHAR3 PONCHAR4
Roud #1836
RECORDINGS:
Sarah Ann Bartley, "Lakes of Ponchartraine" (on Saskatch01)
Walter Coon, "Creole Girls" (Superior 2521, 1930)
Frances Perry, "On the Lakes of Ponchartrain" (AFS, 1946; on LC55)
Pie Plant Pete [pseud. for Claude Moye], "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (Supertone 9717, 1930) (Perfect 5-10-14/Melotone 5-10-14, 1935; rec. 1934)
Art Thieme, "The Lake of Ponchartrain" (on Thieme05)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lakes of the Ponchartrain
File: LH09

Lake of the Caogama, The


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, now we're leaving home, me boys, to Ottawa we're goin', Expectin' yo be hired, and yet we do not know." The singer hires with Tom Patterson, and spends his time in a comfortless shanty eating bad food. He misses the girls and looks forward to leaving
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1964 (Fowke)
KEYWORDS: logger work lumbering hardtimes
FOUND IN: Canada(Que)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Fowke-Lumbering #24, "The Lake of the Caogama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fowke/MacMillan 21, "The Lake of the Caogama" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4534
NOTES: Typical shantyboy complaint song. Lake Caogama (pronounced keg-a-ma) was a lumber camp on the northern shore of the Ottawa River. - SL
File: FowL24

Lakes of Cold Finn


See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Lakes of Shillin, The


See Lake of Cool Finn, The (Willie Leonard) [Laws Q33] (File: LQ33)

Lakes of the Ponchartrain, The


See The Lake of Ponchartrain [Laws H9] (File: LH09)

Lamachree and Megrum


DESCRIPTION: Each verse describes a farm hand experience. For example, "I there got buttered bread and cheese An oil to keep my shoon in grease." or "Betty Barbour was fu' keen, She had twa bonnie blinkin' e'en"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: farming work nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," pp. 71-72, "Lamachree and Megrum"; Greig #4, p. 1, "Lamachree and Megrum" (2 texts, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan3 398, "Lamachree and Megrum" (5 texts, 2 tunes)
Roud #2873
NOTES: NOTES:
Greig notes that "Mains o' Culsh" is sung to the tune of "Lamachree and Megrum"; on the other hand, GreigDuncan3 398C includes three verses that belong to, or at least are central to, "Mains o' Culsh." The MacColl version - "learned from print (Miscellanea of the Rymour Club of Edinburgh)" -- is very close to GreigDuncan 398C minus these three verses (on Ewan MacColl with Peggy Seeger and Alf Edwards, "Bothy Ballads of Scotland," Folkways Records FW 8759 LP (1961)).
GreigDuncan3's five versions of "Lamachree and Megrum" include twenty-five verses, rhymed couplets, only one verse is repeated, and that only once: "I gaed up to Aberdour, I got lasses three or four." Greig #4 states that "Sometimes a ploughman song deals with a series of places at which the singer is understood to have served. 'Lamachree and Megrum' may be given as an example." "Lamachree and Megrum" seems a disconnected set of verses in the nature of a military cadence call.
GreigDuncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Auchtydure (398) is at coordinate (h4-5,v0-1) on that map [roughly 25 miles N of Aberdeen] - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3398

Lambkin


See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Lambs on the Green Hills, The


See The False Bride (The Week Before Easter; I Once Loved a Lass) (File: K152)

Lambton Worm, The


DESCRIPTION: Young Lambton catches a fish of an unknown kind. Wanting to know what it is, he puts it down a well, then sets off for the Crusades. The fish grows into a serpent that leaves the well and does great damage. The lord comes home and kills the creature
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1892
KEYWORDS: animal monster fishing fight
FOUND IN: Britain(England(North))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
PBB 104, "The Lambton Worm" (1 text)
DT, LAMDWORM
Roud #2337
NOTES: Reputed to be about a Northumbrian lord's attempt to raise taxes. I know of no hard evidence of this. - RBW
File: PBB104

Lament for John Sneddon


See The Collier Lad (Lament for John Sneddon/Siddon) (File: HHH110)

Lament for the Loss of the Ship Union


See Lovely Ann (File: Leyd034)

Lament of John O Mahony


DESCRIPTION: The singer, growing old "in a foreign land, in a lonesome city" thinks "not a single hope have I seen fulfilled For the blood we spilled." He thinks of his home land. "My heart still lingers on its native strand And American land holds naught for me"
AUTHOR: Dr. Douglas Hyde (source: OLochlainn-More)
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (OLochlainn-More)
KEYWORDS: homesickness rebellion exile America Ireland lament nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
OLochlainn-More 31, "Lament of John O Mahony" (1 text, 1 tune)
NOTES: OLochlainn-More: "O'Mahony, born in Co. Limerick, turned out with Smith O'Brien at Ballingarry, 1848, fled to France and in 1852 to America; with Stephens founded I.R.B. and was Head Centre in U.S.A. Died in poverty, New York, 1877." - BS
For more on the events of 1848, see especially "The Shan Van Voght (1848)." It is ironic to note that the 1848 rebellion was the one attempt to set Ireland free that resulted in almost no bloodshed. - RBW
File: OLcM031

Lament of the Border Widow, The


See The Famous Flower of Serving-Men [Child 106] (File: C106)

Lament of the Irish Emigrant, The


See I'm Sitting on the Stile, Mary (The Irish Emigrant II) (File: Pea462)

Lament, The


See The Irish Girl (File: HHH711)

Lamentation of a Bad Market, The


DESCRIPTION: On January 10 a carpenter starts a fire that burns a bridge over the Thames. A lord and the King, looking at the thin ice, bet whether a man's weight could be held. The king loses when three children fall through and drown. John is beheaded.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1651 (The Loves of Hero and Leander, according to Opie-Oxford2)
KEYWORDS: wager execution death drowning fire parody children nobility
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Opie-Oxford2 [facing #99', "The Lamentation of a Bad Market" (repring of the broadside)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Douce Ballads 3(53), "The Lamentation of a Bad Market ," J. White (Newcastle), 1711-1769
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" (see Notes)
NOTES: Immediately after the King loses his bet a man is beheaded without explanation or follow-up.
Opie-Oxford2 99, "Three children sliding on the ice": "It describes the burning of 'a bridge of London town' and was probably occasioned by the fire which, in February 1633, destroyed much of London Bridge. Stanzas 12, 18, and 19, run:
Three children sliding there abouts, Upon a place too thin, That so at last it did fall out, That they did all fall in.
Yee Parents all that Children have And ye that have none yet; Preserve your Children From the Grave, And teach them at home to sit.
For had these at a Sermon been, Or else upon dry ground, Why then I never have been seen, If that they had been drown'd.
This is undoubtedly a burlesque of the pious ballad-mongers whose 'Providential Warning and Good Counsels' wearied the Cavalier aristocracy."
The three verses survive as "Three Little Girls A-Skating Went" changed slightly to add paradox. - BS
According to the Riverside Shakespeare, p. 1395, it has never been common for the Thames to freeze over -- but that page shows a woodcut from Dekker's 1608 publication The Great Frost: Cold Doings in London; the winter of 1607-1608 did see the river frozen solid. Most amazing is the fact that it shows a fire burning in a pan set directly on the ice. Evidently this sort of thing was common.
And don't get me started on Minnesota ice fishermen who park their pickup trucks out in the middle of lakes. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: BdBLoaBM

Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds, The


DESCRIPTION: Hugh Reynolds loves Catherine McCabe who, by perjury, has him condemned to be hanged. "With irons I'm surrounded, in grief I lie confounded, by perjury unbounded; she's the dear maid to me"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Duffy)
KEYWORDS: abduction execution trial lament
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
March 28, 1826 - Hugh Reynolds executed for the abduction of Catherine M'Cabe (source: Sparling [see notes])
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
OLochlainn 66, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 380-381, 513, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Charles Gavan Duffy, editor, The Ballad Poetry of Ireland (1845), pp. 152-153, "The Lamentation of Hugh Reynolds"
Roud #2395
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Star of Sunday's Well" (tune)
NOTES: Sparling: "Both families were County Cavan people and Catholics, but there was a feud between them, begun over 'a bit of land.' ... Catharine was very reluctant, and her evidence had to be forced from her. Her uncle was universally credited with being the instigator of the prosecution, and the vindictive inventor of the plot by which Reynolds was captured and convicted. The girl died soon after--of a broken heart, say the gossips; who also report that 'Divine vengeance' followed the M'Cabes."
Duffy: "'She's a dear maid to me.' Perhaps the English reader will require to be told that this is not to be taken in its literal meaning; it is a proverbial expression, implying that he would pay dearly for his acquaintance with her."
"Another popular ballad on the same subject is 'The Abduction of the Quaker's Daughter' by John M'Goldrick." (source: Chapters of Dublin History site: John Edward Walsh, Ireland Sixty Years Ago (1911), "Chapter III. Abduction - Abduction Clubs - The Misses Kennedy - Miss Knox") - BS
File: OLoc066

Lamentation of James O'Sullivan, The


DESCRIPTION: July 12 in Stewartstown the Catholics defend their church, leaving 22 Orangemen "a-bleeding on the ground." O'Sullivan is jailed, tried, convicted, "and sentenced for to end his life upon a gallows tree." He refuses freedom and reward to turn informer.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: c.1830 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: violence execution trial Ireland political lament
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann 36, "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Owen Rooney's Lamentation" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Battle That Was Fought in the North" (subject: "party fights")
cf. "The Noble Blue Ribbon Boys" (subject: Ulster quarrels)
NOTES: July 12 is the Gregorian Calendar (adopted in England in 1752) date for celebrating the victory of William III of Orange in the Battle of the Boyne, July 1, 1690.
The complete title of Zimmermann's broadside is "The Lamentation of James O'Sullivan, Who was executed at Omagh Jail for being concerned in the battle which took place between the Catholics and Orangemen at Stewartstown on the 12th July."
Zimmermann: "This ballad ... [was] perhaps also inspired by the 'party fights' in July 1829. Upwards of twenty men were said to have been killed in County Tyrone.... There was more fighting near Stewartstown in July 1831." - BS
And it would continue for many more years; after the fight at Dolly Brae in 1849 (for which see "Dolly's Brae (I)" and "Dolly's Brae (II)"), the British would pass the Party Processions Act in 1850 to control these fights. But still they march at Portadown.
Stewartstown is roughly on the boundary between the majority-Catholic and the majority-Protestant parts of Ulster; so it's easy to see how life could be very tense there. - RBW
File: Zimm036

Lamentation of Patrick Brady, The


See Pat Brady (File: OLoc053A)

Lamfin


See Lamkin [Child 93] (File: C093)

Lamkin [Child 93]


DESCRIPTION: (Lamkin) rebuilt a lord's castle, but was never paid. As the lord sets out on a journey, he warns his wife to beware of Lamkin. The precautions are in vain; Lamkin (helped by a false nurse) steals in and kills the lord's child (and wife) (and is hanged)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1775 (Percy)
KEYWORDS: death theft revenge children punishment murder cannibalism
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber),England(Lond,South,West)) US(Ap,MA,MW,NE,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (39 citations):
Child 93, "Lamkin" (25 texts)
Bronson 93, "Lamkin" (30 versions (some with variants)+3 in addenda)
GreigDuncan2 187, "Lambkin" (3 texts)
Leather, pp. 199-200, "Young Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #19}
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 200-206, "Lamkin" (1 text plus 1 fragment, 1 tune; also extensive notes on version classification) {Bronson's #16}
Randolph 23, "False Lamkin" (1 text with variants, 1 tune) {Bronson's #25}
Eddy 17, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #8}
Gardner/Chickering 127, "Lamkin" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune) {Bronson's #15}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 104-107, "Squire Relantman" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 297-316, "Lamkin" (7 texts plus 3 fragments, 4 tunes) {C=Bronson's #7)
Linscott, pp. 303-305, "Young Alanthia" (1 text, 1 tune)
Davis-Ballads 26, "Lamkin" (3 texts plus a fragment, 1 tune entitled "Lampkin") {Bronson's #10}
Davis-More 28, pp. 214-220, "Lamkin" (1 text)
BrownII 29, "Lamkin" (1 text plus assorted excerpts)
Chappell-FSRA 42, "Lamkins" (1 text, apparently a fragment of Child #93 (containing only a threat of cannibalism) plus three "My Horses Ain't Hungry" stanzas)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 62-64, "Bolakin (Lamkin)" (1 text)
Brewster 16, "Lamkin" (1 text plus a fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #20}
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 20-21, "Lamkin" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Peacock, pp. 806-807, "Bold Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Karpeles-Newfoundland 13, "Lamkin" (1 text, 4 tunes)
Lehr/Best 35, "False Limkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach, pp. 288-295, "Lamkin" (4 texts)
Leach-Labrador 6, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 199, "Lamkin" (1 text)
OBB 78, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Warner 102, "Bolamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
SharpAp 27, "Lamkin" (5 texts, 5 tunes){Bronson's #11, #14, #12, #4, #9}
Sharp-100E 27, "False Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #2}
PBB 64, "Lamkin" (1 text)
Niles 38, "Lamkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, pp. 60-61, "Long Lankin" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #28}
Copper-SoBreeze, pp. 258-259, "False Lanky" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hodgart, p. 64, "Lamkin" (1 text)
DBuchan 16, "Lamkin" (1 text)
TBB 19, "Lamkin" (1 text)
SHenry H735, p. 133, "Lambkin" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NAS, pp. 63-64, "Bo Lamkin" (1 text)
DT 93, BLAMKIN* BOLAMKN2* BOLAMKN3*
ADDITIONAL: Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 127-128, "Long Lankin" (1 text)
Roud #6
RECORDINGS:
Ben Butcher, "Cruel Lincoln" (on FSB4, Voice03)
George Fosbury, "False Lamkin" (on FSBBAL1)
Frank Proffitt, "Bo Lamkin" (on Proffitt03)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1048), "The Lambkin," J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Batson" [Laws I10] (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lamfin
NOTES: John Jacob Niles claims that this song was once sung in the Louisville schools. One can only wish he had offered supporting evidence.
Anne G. Gilchrist examines the development of this ballad in "Lambkin: A Study in Evolution" (first printed in the Journal of the Emglish Folk Dance and Song Society, I, 1932; see now MacEdward Leach and Tristram P. Coffin, eds, The Critics and the Ballad, pp. 204-224).
Gilchrist finds two basic forms of the ballad. In one, primarily Scottish, Lamkin is a mason defrauded of his pay by the lord whose castle he built. In the other, Northumbrian and English, Lamkin is simply a ruffian or a border raider, seeking loot or perhaps the hand of the lord's daughter.
Gilchrist believes the Scottish form to be older, and believes that the other arose when the first stanza (in which the lord's fraud is described) was lost. She argues that the name "Lambkin" is diminutive of the Flemist name Lambert, and speculates that it may have been based on a (hypothesized) incident at Balwearie in Fife -- a site mentioned in some versions of the ballad, and located near a Flemish colony.
Some versions mention Lamkin catching the infant's blood in a bowl. This has caused all sorts of speculation about ritual, or perhaps about some sort of trick to further punish the child (because, according to the Bible, the blood is the life). Obviously some such explanation is possible -- but I think we have to allow the possibility that he's just a nut, or trying to avoid leaving a trail.
James Reed, in his article "Border Ballads," included in Edward J. Cowan, editor, The People's Past: Scottish Folk, Scottish History 1980 (I use the 1993 Polygon paperback edition), discusses this ballad on pp. 24-25, and considers it most unusual among border ballads because it features a class conflict (between the lord and Lamkin). It's an interesting point -- but the question then arises whether the song is really a border ballad. The mere fact that it has been widely collected along the border between England and Scotland does not make it one. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C093

Lammas Fair in Cargan, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer rambles until he chances on the Cargan fair, which he says exceeds all others. He describes the people, the food, the vendors, the police, the brawling -- and admits to coming home bruised and beaten
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1933 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: party drink fight nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H513, p. 75, "The Lammas Fair in Cargan" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9051
File: HHH513

Lancaster Maid, The


See Betsy Is a Beauty Fair (Johnny and Betsey; The Lancaster Maid) [Laws M20] (File: LM20)

Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland, The


DESCRIPTION: "Cheer up your hearts, you tenant farmers, the land you nobly till, Pay no rent, and keep the harvest" is the advice of Parnell, Brennan, Thomas Woods and Michael Davitt. Thumb your nose at the landlord. Reject the champion spud
AUTHOR: "M. O'Brien" (Source: Zimmermann)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1881 (Zimmermann)
KEYWORDS: farming Ireland nonballad political
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Zimmermann 79, "The Land League's Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland" (1 text)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)" (subject)
cf. "Michael Davitt" (subject)
NOTES: Bodleian, Harding B 40(6), "The Land Leagues Advice to the Tenant Farmers of Ireland ("Attend to me you tenant farmers thats assembled in this town"), J.F. Nugent and Co.? (Dublin?), 1850-1899 is apparently this ballad but I could not download the image to verify that. It has the author as M. O'Brien.
Zimmermann: "This ballad was probably written as a comment on the 'No-Rent Manifesto' issued by the Land League after the arrest of its leaders, advising the tenant farmers 'to pay no rents under any circumstances to their landlords ... They can no more evict a whole nation than they can imprison them'" quoting The Nation, 22nd October 1881.
Zimmermann notes that the "Champion spud," ridiculed in the song, was resistant to the potato blight and was grown in Scotland and Ireland after 1870.
Zimmermann notes, p. 276, that Thomas Brennan was a Land Leaguer arrested in 1881. Charles Stewart Parnell was also arrested in 1881 (p. 278; cf. "The Blackbird of Avondale (The Arrest of Parnell)"). Michael Davitt is another arrested Land Leaguer (cf. "Michael Davitt"). [For these two, see also the notes on "The Bold Tenant Farmer." - RBW] I have no information on Thomas Woods. - BS
File: Zimm079

Land o' America, The


DESCRIPTION: "You native Scots, and relations all, A ploughman's wages is but small." Come to America. "There is plenty o' tobacco te smoke and te chaw" but beware the Indians. He says "nor yet will I forsake my dear, but I'll won gold and buckle braw"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1911 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration gold America Scotland nonballad Indians(Am.)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #179, p. 2, ("You native Scots and relations all"); Greig #179, p. 2, ("Yer stinkin' cheese, and yer breid fired raw"); Greig #179, p. 2, ("The women there they nakit run") (3 fragments)
GreigDuncan3 535, "The Land o' America" (3 texts)
Roud #6013
ALTERNATE TITLES:
America
NOTES: GreigDuncan3 by Greig in 1911: "Heard sung at St Combs seventy years ago." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3535

Land o' Cakes, The


See Bannocks o' Barley Meal (File: FVS142)

Land o' the Leal, The


DESCRIPTION: "I am wearing awa', Jean, Like snaw when it's thaw, Jean; I'm wearing awa' tae the land o' the leal...." The (old man) recalls the hard times they have been through, and looks forward to a happier life
AUTHOR: Caroline, Lady Nairn
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Eliot)
KEYWORDS: love separation death
FOUND IN: Britain
REFERENCES (2 citations):
DT, LANDLEAL
ADDITIONAL: Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #330, p. 560, "The Land o' the Leal" (by Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne)
Roud #8999
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Be Kin' to Yer Nainsel, John" (parody)
NOTES: One of Lady Nairn's most popular pieces, reprinted in works such as Palgrave's Golden Treasury. Gordeanna McCulloch sings a song, "Be Kind Tae Yer Nainsel," which purports to be from oral tradition and which has many of the same lyrics but a rather different purpose. I do not know whether it inspired Lady Nairn's song, or was inspired by it; the notes on the recording imply the former. - RBW
File: DTlandle

Land of Fish and Seals, The


DESCRIPTION: "Let Sunny India her wealth proclaim... We envy not her gaudy show." The singer contrasts "the land of fish and seals" with foreign nations: though "No great immortal names are ours," they can boast of freedom and "our living brave."
AUTHOR: "Mrs. Peace" ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Murphy, Songs Sung By Old Time Sealers of Many Years Ago)
KEYWORDS: nonballad patriotic Canada fishing recitation
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, p. 25, "The Land of Fish and Seals" (1 text)
NOTES: A poem not a song, and probably not traditional -- but seemingly widely printed in Newfoundland. - RBW
File: RySm025

Land of Potatoes, Oh!, The


DESCRIPTION: "Oh, had I in the clear five hundred a year" the singer would build a cottage and garden in Ireland, not roam to other countries. Those from other lands would stay here if they came once. An Irish wife, "so nice and complete," would make him even happier.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1839 (Croker-PopularSongs); before 1820 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1066))
KEYWORDS: poverty emigration Ireland nonballad home
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
O'Conor, pp. 73+160, "The Land of Potatoes, Oh!" (1 text)
Croker-PopularSongs, pp. 57-60, "The Land of Potatoes, O!" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1066), "The Land of Potatoes", J. Pitts (London), 1802-1819
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Morgan Rattler" (tune, according to Croker-PopularSongs)
NOTES: Croker-PopularSongs: "[The Land of Potatoes] is ascribed to Mr. [Robert MacOwen] Owenson, the father of Lady Morgan; who is also said to have been "the author of various lyrical compositions, which were sung on the Dublin stage, and are remarkable for broad wit and genuine humour" (see also "Sydney Owenson (Lady Morgan),Novelist, c1783 - 1859" at the site for George Owenson, Dalgety Church and Dalgety Bay). - BS
File: OCon073

Land of the Silver Birch


DESCRIPTION: A pseudo-Indian ode to northern lands: "Land of the silver birch, home of the beaver, Where still the mighty moose wanders at will, Blue lake and rocky shore, I will return once more." The singer ends by promising to build a wigwam in the north
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1953 (Ontario Department of Education booklet)
KEYWORDS: homesickness return nonballad
FOUND IN: Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fowke/Johnston, pp. 190-191, "Land of the Silver Birch" (1 text, 1 tune)
ST FJ190 (Partial)
Roud #4550
NOTES: For some reason, we learned this in elementary school in Minnesota, some time around 1970. I can't imagine why. - RBW
File: FJ190

Land of the West, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer urges his love to "come to the west... I'll make thee my own. I'll guard thee, I'll tend thee...." North and south have their delights, but the west is warm and fair. He again calls her to come to his own land
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868) (source: Hayes)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Johnson Ballads fol. 118)
KEYWORDS: love home nonballad
FOUND IN: Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan3 505, "The Land of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
SHenry H677, p. 175, "The Land of the West" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Edward Hayes, The Ballads of Ireland (Boston, 1859), Vol II, pp. 27-28, "The Land of the West"
Roud #5990
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Johnson Ballads fol. 118, "The Land of the West" ("Oh, come to the West, love, oh come there with me"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.13(67), Harding B 11(528), Firth b.27(301), Harding B 18(336), Harding B 11(2056), Harding B 11(4390), 2806 c.15(247)[some words illegible], "The Land of the West"
LOCSinging, as202030, "Land of the West," H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1878; also sb20284a, "Land of the West"
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as202030: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging as202030 and Bodleian Harding B 18(336) are duplicates. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: HHH677

Land Where the Shamrocks Grow, The


DESCRIPTION: "There is an Island thatÕs famed in her glory, Sweet poets have sung in her praise." Some prefer England or Scotland, but the singer gives his love to Ireland. He hopes that she may soon be more friendly to England
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1922 (Dean)
KEYWORDS: Ireland nonballad patriotic
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dean, pp. 60-61, "The Land Where the Shamrocks Grow" (1 text)
Roud #9559
NOTES: There is a relatively common poem with this title, found e.g. in the Digital Tradition. They are not the same song. I have found no other sure references to this piece, though with two songs having the same title and general theme, it can be hard to tell.... - RBW
File: Dean060

Landlady of France, The


DESCRIPTION: "A landlady of France loved an officer, 'tis said, And this officer he dearly loved her brandy-o." As he prepares to go off to battle, they encourage encourage each other (primarily to drink more), "For love is like the colic, cured with brandy-o."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1942
KEYWORDS: soldier drink separation love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Gilbert, pp. 37-38, "The Landlady of France" (1 text)
DT, LNDLDYFR*
File: Gil037

Landlord, Fill the Flowing Bowl


DESCRIPTION: "Landlord, fill the flowing bowl until it doth run over (x2), For tonight we'll merry merry be (x3); Tomorrow we'll be sober." The singer describes those who drink water, ale, whiskey and/or court freely -- noting that those who drink deep are happier
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 17(55a))
KEYWORDS: drink nonballad courting landlord
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan3 562, "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber-FSWB, p. 229, "Landlord Fill The Flowing Bowl" (1 text)
DT, COACHMN3*
Roud #1234
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 17(55a), "Come Landlord Fill a Flowing Bowl," T. Birt (London) , 1828-1829; also Harding B 18(602), Harding B 15(53a), Harding B 11(2318), "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl" ; Harding B 15(52b), Firth c.22(49), Firth b.26(267), "Come Landlord Fill the Flowing Bowl"; Firth b.28(34) View 2 of 2, "Landlord Fill a Flowing Bowl"; Harding B 11(2247), 2806 c.17(135), "Flowing Bowl"
LOCSinging, as108210, "Flowing Bowl," Pitts, J. (London), 1819-1844; also sb10068a, "Come, Landlord, Fill a Flowing Bowl"; as102150, "Landlord, Fill the Flowing bowl"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Three Jolly Coachmen
NOTES: Broadsides LOCSinging as108210 and Bodleian Harding B 11(2247) are duplicates, [as are] LOCSinging sb10068a and Bodleian Harding B 18(602). - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: FSWB229A

Lane County Bachelor, The


See Starving to Death on a Government Claim (The Lane County Bachelor) (File: R186)

Lang Harper


DESCRIPTION: Don't love a rose that blossoms in July, fades in August, and will prick you when the roses fall.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: courting rejection warning floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1410, "Lang Harper" (1 fragment)
Roud #7261
NOTES: The GreigDuncan7 fragment -- one floating verse -- is the basis of the description but gives no clue about the rest of the song. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71410

Lang Johnny More [Child 251]


DESCRIPTION: John More, on a visit to London, falls in love with the King's daughter. The King declares he will kill John, and takes him prisoner by drugging him. John sends a message begging help. Two giants come to rescue him, browbeating the King into surrender
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (described in a letter from Peter Buchan to Motherwell; see Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, p, 172)
KEYWORDS: royalty love courting prison execution rescue
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Child 251, "Lang Johnny More" (1 text)
Bronson 251, "Lang Johnny More" (15 versions)
Greig #27, pp. 1-2, "Lang Johnnie More" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 246, "Lang Johnnie More" (10 texts, 8 tunes) {A=Bronson's #5, B=#3,C=#2, D=#1, E=#13, F=#11, G=#9, H=#12}
DBuchan 59, "Lang Johnny More" (1 text)
DT 251, LONGJOHN
Roud #3100
RECORDINGS:
John Strachan, "Lang Johnny More" (on FSB5, FSBBAL2) {Bronson's #8}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnie Scot" [Child 99]
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Long John, Old John, and Jackie North
Lang Johnnie Moir
NOTES: Child views this as "perhaps an imitation, and in fact almost a parody, of 'Johnie Scot.'" Certainly the plots are very much alike -- but the supernatural feats of the rescuers are commonplaces (cf., e.g., "Hughie Grame" [Child 191]).
The surname "More/Moore" appears a distortion of Gaelic "Mor," "big." - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C251

Lang Lang Syne


See Do Ye Mind Lang Syne (File: FVS190)

Langolee


See (references under) The Banks of the Dee (File: DTbnksde)

Lanigan's Ball


DESCRIPTION: Jimmy Lanigan had "batter'd away till he hadn't a pound"; coming into money from his father, he determines to have a party. A fight ends the ball when "Old Shamus the piper" was tangled in "pipes, bellows, chanters" and "the girls in their ribbons"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1886 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2058))
KEYWORDS: money party fight dancing drink music humorous
FOUND IN: US(MW) Ireland Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (6 citations):
GreigDuncan3 627, "Lannagan's Ball" (2 fragments, 2 tunes)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 222-224, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 100-101, "Lannigan's Ball" (1 text)
OLochlainn 52, "Lanigan's Ball" (1 text, 1 tune)
cf. Gardner/Chickering, p. 480, "Lanigan's Ball" (source notes only)
DT, LANIBALL*
ST SWM222 (Partial)
Roud #3011
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "Jimmie Lanigan" [fragment] (AFS 4212 A4, 1939; in AMMEM/Cowell)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2058), "Lannigan's Ball", H. Such (London), 1863-1885; also Harding B 15(167a), Harding B 11(3172), Harding B 26(345), 2806 c.8(124), "Lannigan's Ball"; 2806 b.11(154), "Lannigan's Ball!"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Blythesome Bridal" (theme)
SAME TUNE:
Larry Magee's Wedding (File: OCon083)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Laddikin's Ball
NOTES: This reminds me quite a bit of "The Blythesome Bridal," in that the minimalist plot is offered simply to offer a justification for the party that the song is really about. - RBW
OLochlainn: "Air and fragment of words from my mother who learnt them in Kilkee about 1880.... I have seen a full music sheet of this song published about the 'seventies, where words were ascribed to 'Mr. Gavan, the celebrated Galway poet.'"
The versions of "Lanigan's Ball" that I have seen (the broadsides, O'Conor, OLochlainn, the Spaeth fragment in the Supplemental Tradition) vary very little. The fragments in GreigDuncan3 have a phrase ("Just in time for Lannagan's/Laddikin's ball") that ends a verse of other texts but the lines preceding that phrase ("I'll get up in the morning early, I'll get up and gie ye a call, I'll get up in the mornin' early") do not come close to fitting any of those texts. Greig, in GreigDuncan3, suggests this as "kind of chorus." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: SWM222

Lannagan's Ball


See Lanigan's Ball (File: SWM222)

Lannigan's Ball


See Lanigan's Ball (File: SWM222)

Lanty Leary


DESCRIPTION: "Slippery Lanty Leary" and Rosie Carey are in love. Her father is opposed. He follows her anyway. Her father dies leaving her "house, land, and cash." He agrees to follow her again. Deathly sick, she asks him to follow her. "I'll not, says Lanty Leary"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Hayward-Ulster)
KEYWORDS: courting death money humorous father separation
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hayward-Ulster, p. 78, "Lanty Leary" (1 text)
Roud #6538
File: HayU078

Largy Line, The


DESCRIPTION: Shoemaker George McCaughey, having seen many women, is ready to abandon them for "Miss Baxter." He met her while teaching the "Tully band," and walked home together. Her family has consented to the marriage. He blesses the founder of the band
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1938 (Sam Henry collection)
KEYWORDS: love courting music family
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
SHenry H781, p. 467, "The Largy Line" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #9457
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Foot of the Mountain Brow,The (The Maid of the Mountain Brow)" [Laws P7] (tune)
SAME TUNE:
Foot of the Mountain Brow,The (The Maid of the Mountain Brow) [Laws P7] (File: LP07)
File: HHH781

Lark in the Morning, The


DESCRIPTION: (Singer) meets young girl who praises plowboys. The singer meets a plowboy. He takes her "to the fair." The rest of their relationship is couched in equally allegorical terms.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1854 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1070))
KEYWORDS: lyric nonballad farming courting seduction
FOUND IN: Britain(England) Ireland US(So)
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Sharp-100E 62, "The Lark in the Morn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Randolph 562, "Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Kennedy 140, "The Ploughboy" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LARKMORN* LARKMOR2*
ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 46, "The Lark in the Morning" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #151
RECORDINGS:
Paddy Tunney, "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05) [a mixture of "The Lark in the Morning" and "Roger the Ploughboy"]
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1070), "The Lark in the Morning" ("As I was a walking one morning in May"), Swindells (Manchester), 1796-1853; also Harding B 11(3684), Firth c.18(172), Firth b.34(224), Harding B 16(125c), Harding B 11(2060), "The Lark in the Morning"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Pretty Plowboy
NOTES: The narrative thread is so fragmentary that I've classed this as a lyric song, not a ballad. -PJS
There is a ballad back there, though, as Kennedy's version shows; under all the symbolism is a story of seduction. The title apparently came about because larks are among the first birds to start singing in the morning. - RBW
Re Paddy Tunney's "The Lark in the Morning" (on Voice05): the first verse is a fragment of "The Lark in the Morning"; the second is a fragment of "Roger the Ploughboy." - BS
File: ShH62

Larrigans, The


DESCRIPTION: About Angus Munn, his size 14 larrigans, and the daily life in the winter lumber camps: sleep on spruce boughs, up three hours before sun-up, lunch, axes and saws at work, songs at night.
AUTHOR: Jim McAree, Baldwin's Road
EARLIEST DATE: 1973 (Dibblee/Dibblee)
KEYWORDS: lumbering music humorous
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 34-35, "The Larrigans" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #12474
NOTES: Here is a description of larrigans from the Web: "They're felt boots and rubbers. Heavy felt, shaped like an English Wellington and knee-high, with tough rubbers over the feet, the whole being devised to comfort woodchoppers in deep snow. The larrigan is noticeable and recognized at a great distance." (source: Grandmothers I Have Known and Embellished by John Gould, quoted from The Home Forum Column from the September 15, 2000 Christian Science Monitor on the Cristian Science Monitor site). In Dibblee/Dibblee pp. 38-39, "Shanty Boys" "We all arrive at the shanty wet and cold with damp feet; We then pull off our larrigans...." - BS
File: Dib034

Larry Doolan


See My Irish Jaunting Car (The Irish Boy) (File: HHH592)

Larry Magee's Wedding


DESCRIPTION: Larry "dwelt in a fashionable part of the city An illigant fine mansion." The dancers, drinkers and eaters "at the grand wedding" are named. All the old songs are sung. The wedding ends with a grand fight.
AUTHOR: Samuel Lover (1797-1868)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1865 (broadside, LOCSinging as107470)
KEYWORDS: wedding humorous party drink fight food moniker
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
O'Conor pp. 83-84, "Larry Magee's Wedding" (1 text)
BROADSIDES:
LOCSinging, as107470, "Larry Magee's Wedding," H. De Marsan (New York), 1861-1864
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Lanigan's Ball" (tune, per broadside LOCSinging as107470)
NOTES: Broadside LOCSinging as107470: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
File: OCon083

Larry Marr


See The Big Five-Gallon Jar (File: Doe111)

Larry McGee


DESCRIPTION: Larry coaxes "Missus Brady, who was reared up a lady" to marry. There was a huge wedding party with dancing, drink and food. Larry gets drunk, confuses his donkey for his wife, gets into a fight "in defense of his darling" and is laid out "with a clout"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1928 (Mackenzie)
KEYWORDS: wedding fight dancing drink food music humorous animal
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Mackenzie 139, "Larry McGee" (1 text)
Roud #3283
BROADSIDES:
Harding B 11(684), "The Wedding of Larry Magee," unknown, n.d.
NOTES: MacKenzie: "The Irish song 'Larry Magee's Wedding' is so similar in metre and plot to [MacKenzie 139] that there is pretty certainly a tie of relationship." It all depends. Mackenzie cites O'Conor pp. 83-84 (included in the Index as "Larry Magee's Wedding," by Samuel Lover); that is certainly a different song. However, broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(684) is certainly Mackenzie's song. - BS
File: Mack139

Larry O'Gaff


DESCRIPTION: Larry's father leaves when he is a baby in Ireland. He recounts his rambles to England as a hod carrying, bog trotting, soldiering at Waterloo, and retiring "with a wife to spend my life, sport and play, night and day" to Ireland.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(1072))
KEYWORDS: Napoleon Ireland marriage rambling return abandonment soldier
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 18, 1815 - Battle of Waterloo
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Eddy 148, "We Fought Like the Divil" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
O'Conor, pp. 55-56, "Larry O'Gaff" (1 text)
ST E148 (Full)
Roud #13383
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(1072), "Larry O Gaff", J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844
File: E148

Lass Amang the Heather, The


See Queen Among the Heather (File: K141)

Lass from Glasgow Town


See The Lass of Swansea Town (Swansea Barracks) (File: Pea547)

Lass o Glencoe (I), The


DESCRIPTION: Singer reminisces about the lass he has left in Glencoe. He meets her in the heather and asks her to marry; she refuses. He promises to keep a lock of her hair. Last line of most verses: "I still like my lassie fae bonnie Glencoe"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1962 (collected from Maggie McPhee)
KEYWORDS: love rejection parting travel Scotland
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
MacSeegTrav 29, "The Lassie o' Glencoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3923
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe" (lyrics)
cf. "Portmore (My Heart's in the Highlands)" (lyrics)
NOTES: Despite a few lyrics in common, this is a separate song from "MacDonald's Return to Glencoe." It also seems to have had grafted onto it a verse from "Portmore", which inspired Burns's "Farewell to the Highlands." - PJS
File: McCST029

Lass o Glencoe (II), The


See MacDonald's Return to Glencoe (The Pride of Glencoe) [Laws N39] (File: LN39)

Lass o Gowrie, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer meets and proposes to Katie, "the finest flower That ever bloom'd in Gowrie." He says he has loved her since he first saw her in school and cares for nothing else in Gowrie. She agrees to marry, the old folks consent, and now she's Lady Gowrie.
AUTHOR: William Reid (source: Bodleian comment on broadside 2806 c.14(35) and some others; but see note re Whitelaw)
EARLIEST DATE: before 1835 (broadside, Bodleian Firth b.26(462))
KEYWORDS: courting love wedding nobility
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
GreigDuncan5 954, "The Lass o Gowrie," GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "Lass o Gowrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), p. 535, "The Lass o’ Gowrie"
The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century, (London, 1854 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 145-146, "The Lass o' Gowrie"
Roud #3871
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth b.26(462), "The Lass o' Gowrie" ("'Twas on a simmer's afternoon"), Walker (Durham), 1797-1834; also 2806 c.14(35), Harding B 11(2287), Harding B 11(2074), 2806 c.14(170), Harding B 25(1080), 2806 c.14(196) View 5 of 5, "[The] Lass O' Gowrie"
LOCSinging, as202060, "The Lass of Gowrie" ("'Twas on a simmer's afternoon"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1864-1878; also sb20265a, "The Lass of Gowrie"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(110), "The Lass o' Gowrie" ("'Twas on a summer's afternoon"), unknown, c.1875
NOTES: Gowrie is an area immediately north of Perth City (source: Perthshire Scotland site).
Whitelaw marks his copy as "[Modern Version]"; his five verse version is, excluding some spelling and capitalization differences, the same as broadside Bodleain 2806 c.14(35) and GreigDuncan5. These texts include a verse in which Kate hesitates, recalling that Nell was won by "Daft Will" and has dropped out of sight.
The Illustrated Book of Scottish Songs ...: "Founded upon an older ballad, by William Reid of Glasgow, entitled 'Kate o' Gowrie.'"
Broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.178.A.2(110) appears to be a duplicate of a cut from Bodleian 2806 c.14(170), unknown, no date.
Broadside LOCSinging as202060: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD5954

Lass o' Ballochmyle, The


DESCRIPTION: One evening the singer sees and falls in love with "the Lass o' Ballochmyle." "Had she been a country maid" he would bypass fame, honours or gold if he could have "the cot below the pine To tend the flocks or till the soil" to spend every day with her.
AUTHOR: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: before 1867 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3337))
KEYWORDS: love nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 735, "The Lass o' Ballochmyle" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #89, pp. 178-179, "Song. On Miss W. A." (1 text, 1 tune, from before 1796)
Roud #6168
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3337), "The Bonny Lass I Love So Well" ("Fair is the morn in flow'ry May"), J. Harkness (Preston), 1840-1866; also Harding B 11(3338), "The Bonny Lass I Love So Well"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(89a), "The Lass o' Ballochmyle," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Ettrick Banks" (tune, per Burns)
cf. "The Braes o' Ballochmyle" (form, rhyme and reference to "the braes o' Ballochmyle")
NOTES: GreigDuncan4 is a fragment (the first line of Burns); broadside NLScotland is verses three and four of Burns, with a chorus; the Bodleian broadsides are verses three and four of Burns without a chorus "as sung by Mr T Moore at the various Concert Rooms"; Burns is the basis for the description.
Commentary to broadside NLScotland L.C.Fol.70(89a): "Burns's poem was later adapted into a song with the addition of the traditional chorus that also features in the song on this broadside."
What is the relationship between this song, "The Lass o' Ballochmyle" ("'Twas even; the dewy fields were green"), and another Burns poem, "Farewell to Ballochmyle" ("The Catrine woods were yellow seen")? Roud assigns the same number to both. The first verses are clearly related in form and rhyme. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4735

Lass o' Benachie, The


See The Lass o' Bennochie (File: Ord438)

Lass o' Bennochie, The


DESCRIPTION: "Twas at the back o' Bennochie... There I fell in love wi' a bonnie lass." Her wealthy father, despising the lad, forces him into the army. He returns to claim the girl. Father and uncle pursue, but the soldier beats them off. They live happily
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1876 (Christie)
KEYWORDS: love courting poverty soldier separation reunion father
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (5 citations):
Greig #8, pp. 1-2, ("I fell in love wi' a bonnie lass") (1 text)
GreigDuncan5 1012, "The Lass o' Benachie" (15 texts, 12 tunes)
Ord, pp. 438-441, "The Lass o' Bennochie" (3 texts, very diverse; the second is mixed with "Locks and Bolts" [Laws M13] and the third is "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie")
DT, LASBENCH
ADDITIONAL: W. Christie, editor, Traditional Ballad Airs (Edinburgh, 1876 (downloadable pdf by University of Edinburgh, 2007)), Vol I, pp. 36-37, "Twas at the Back o' Bennochie" (1 tune)
Roud #406
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Fury
The Banks o' Bennachie
NOTES: Roud lumps this with "Locks and Bolts" (Laws M13), and indeed Ord's second version includes several whole verses from that song. And Ord's other versions, particularly the third, are so different that it might be reasonable to classify #3 as a separate song and place #2 with "Locks and Bolts."
Nonetheless the similarity of Ord's #1 and #2, and the overall distinctness of the pair from "Locks and Bolts," causes me to split them. This apparently follows Laws, who does not list the Ord texts with M13. Best to see both songs, however - RBW
Greig: "Tradition says that 'The Bonnie Lass o' Benachie' was a Miss Erskine, heiress of Pittodrie, an estate close to Benachie in the parish of Chapel of Garioch. She was born about 1747 and married to her soldier lover about 1770. There is another and better known ballad ["Locks and Bolts"] which is said to refer to the same love episode." Greig then goes on to note "certain chronological difficulties to be faced."
All of the GreigDuncan5 versions are the same song as the second Ord version. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord438

Lass o' Everton, The


DESCRIPTION: "Mony a nicht she's gien consent To rise an'at me in, An' a' wish gae wi' yon bonnie lassie That dwells at Everton"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1908 (GreigDuncan7)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan7 1327, "The Lass o' Everton" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud #7216
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan7 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71327

Lass o' Gonar Ha', The


DESCRIPTION: "There's toons wi' lasses roon That think themsels fu' braw" but the singer adores Jean, the "lass o' Gonar Ha'" He lists towns where "ye winna find her peer." He challenges anyone to "spot a bonnier" he can compare to the "lass whom I adore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1901 (Milne, Buchan Folk Songs, according to Greig)
KEYWORDS: love beauty nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig "Folk-Song in Buchan," p. 36, ("There's toons wi' lasses roon aboot"); Greig #26, p. 2, ("Cake, Cake, and Cairneyquhing") (2 texts)
GreigDuncan4 724, "The Lass o' Gonar Ha'" (1 text plus two additional versions on p. 520, one of which is Greig's "Cake, Cake,..." fragment and the other is Milne's version)
Roud #6159
File: GrD4724

Lass o' Killiecrankie, The


DESCRIPTION: When the singer was young he followed the Prince of Wales's call to join the army. Now Jane McPhail, the lass o' Killiecrankie, has him "turning old and frail." He met her, lent her a hankie, accepted her invitation to sit but sat on a thistle.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: courting humorous soldier
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 736, "The Lass o' Killiecrankie" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
DT, BRITARMY(partial text in the notes)
Roud #5680
NOTES: Greig Duncan4 is a fragment; I have no book or "traditional" recording of a more complete version. The description follows the text of "Killiecrankie," "Traditional Arrangement The Black Family/Johnny McCarthy" on the Black Brothers site. There is a similar text of "Killiecrankie," "Words and Music by Harry Lauder" on "A Celebration of Sir Harry Lauder" site.
The first verse is very close to the first verse of "Join the British Army." - BS
Is there a political subtext here? The famous battle of Killiecrankie, fought in 1689, came about because King James VII and II had had a son, the Prince of Wales, who would be raised Catholic and succeed his father. So, in effect, the Prince of Wales called Stuart loyalists to come to Killicrankie. The pro-Stuart army was all Scots, but when their commander Dundee was killed, the army broke up even though it won the battle. And then, frankly, the Jacobites, having had no success supporting the thistle, went home and turned old and toothless. It's all a bit far-fetched -- except that it all fits, more or less, plus Killiecrankie is nowhere in particular, and would be forgotten but for the battle. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4736

Lass o' the Lecht, The


DESCRIPTION: A servant girl becomes lost in a storm on Earnan's banks. Her master organizes a search. The towns that participate are named. Searchers and bloodhounds fail to find her in the snow. Her body is found in May and buried in Corgarff churchyard.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (GreigDuncan2)
KEYWORDS: burial corpse death storm servant
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig #129, p. 1, "The Lass of the Lecht" (1 text)
GreigDuncan2 229, "The Lass o' the Lecht" (3 texts)
Roud #5841
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Johnnie Cope" (tune, according to GreigDuncan2)
cf. "Haughs o' Cromdale" (tune, according to GreigDuncan2)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lass o' the Light
NOTES: GreigDuncan2: "From leaflet printed at Grantown. Girl was a daughter of Lewis Cruickshank, a contractor near Advie. She was in service at Milton of Allargue. Got permission to visit a former master and mistress near Tomintoul. Tragic death in February 1860. Body found in following May."
Margaret Cruikshank "set off from Tomintoul ... to cross the Lecht Pass over the Ladder Hills [in the current Cairngorms National Park].... body was discovered in Strathdon, on the banks of the river Earnan, many miles from the Lecht" (source: "History - Whisky Smuggling" at the Glenlivet Estate site).
Corgarff is in Aberdeenshire. - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD2229

Lass of Dunmore, The


See The Maid of Dunmore (File: MaWi083)

Lass of Glenshee, The [Laws O6]


DESCRIPTION: The singer woos the a Scottish shepherdess. He offers to marry and provide wealth and servants. She agrees, even though she is content with her life and herd. The singer looks back on years of happy marriage
AUTHOR: Andrew Sharpe (1805) ?
EARLIEST DATE: before 1851 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2075)))
KEYWORDS: courting money marriage
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,NE) Britain(Scotland(Aber)) Ireland Canada(Mar,Newf,Ont)
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Laws O6, "The Lass of Glenshee"
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 12-15, "The Lass o' Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan5 953, "The Lass o' Glenshee" (8 texts, 9 tunes)
Ord, pp. 75-76, "The Lass o Glenshee" (1 text, tune referenced)
Warner 4, "Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
FSCatskills 28, "The Hills of Glenshee" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering 77, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 131-132, "The Lass of Glenshie" (1 text)
SHenry H590, pp. 486-487, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Leach-Labrador 31, "The Lass of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
Creighton-SNewBrunswick 36, "The Rose of Glenshee" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 471, GLENSHEE GLENSHE2 GLENSHE3
Roud #292
RECORDINGS:
O. J. Abbott, "The Lass of Glenshee" (on Abbott1)
Warde Ford, "Lass of Glen Shee" (AFS 4199 A1, 1938; tr.; in AMMEM/Cowell)
"Yankee" John Galusha, "Lass of Glenshee" (on USWarnerColl01)
Mrs. T. Ghaney, "The Lass of Glenshee" (on NFMLeach)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2075), "The Lass o' Glenshea," Stephenson (Gateshead), 1821-1850; also Harding B 17(162a), 2806 c.14(23), Harding B 11(3321), "The Lass o' Glenshea"; Harding B 25(1081)[some words illegible], "The Lass o' Glenshee"; Firth b.26(227), "The Lass of Glenshee"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.178.A.2(120), "The Lass o' Glenshee," unknown, c. 1875
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Road and the Miles to Dundee" (tune, per Ord)
SAME TUNE:
Queen Victoria's Welcome to Deeside (Ord, p. 337)
Crafty Wee Bony (File: GrD1151)
The Guid Coat o' Blue (File: GrD3660)
NOTES: Ford's notes claim that "The Crookit Bawbee" is "simply a free adaption" of this piece. In music, possibly. The text -- hardly. - RBW
Leach-Labrador notes the difference between his text and Ord's: "The present text of six quatrains tells the same story found in the Ord text of twelve quatrains. The difference is, as usual, in the repetition of details." The difference between Leach-Labrador and all of the broadsides is similar. The difference is more than the usual repetition of details. There are very few lines in common though the story outline is the same. This seems a rewrite by someone who once heard the original but never got the words and rebuilt the ballad out of the usual pieces. I wonder what A.B. Lord would have done with this. (No, this is not "Crookit Bawbee" either.) - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: LO06

Lass of Glenshie, The


See The Lass of Glenshee [Laws O6] (File: LO06)

Lass of Mohe, The


See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Lass of Mohea, The


See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Lass of Mohee, The


See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Lass of Mowee, The


See The Little Mohee [Laws H8] (File: LH08)

Lass of Roch Royal, The [Child 76]


DESCRIPTION: (Anne) misses her love (Lord Gregory). She sets out to meet him. When she comes to his castle, Gregory's mother turns her (and her son) away. When Gregory arrives/awakens to meet his love, he find Anne dead (drowned) and gone
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1776 (Herd)
KEYWORDS: separation death mother betrayal floatingverses
FOUND IN: Britain(England,Scotland) US(Ap,MW,So,SE,SW)
REFERENCES (25 citations):
Child 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (12 texts)
Bronson 76, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (23 versions+1 in addenda, though many are generic "Pretty Little Foot" versions; I would regard only #1, #3, #4, #4.1 in the addenda, #5, #16, and #21 as being true versions of this piece, and the first two of those are fragments; #2 has the correct title but no text)
Dixon X, pp. 60-62, "Love Gregory" (1 text, plus a "pleasing imitation" called "Lord Thomas," printed 1825, on pp. 99-100)
GreigDuncan6 1226, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (4 texts plus a single verse on p. 568, 1 tune)
Flanders-Ancient2, pp. 174-177, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 fragments, one of which is probably "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the second being "Pretty Little Foot"; 1 tune)
Belden, p. 55, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (notes and references only)
Randolph 18, "Oh Who Will Shoe My Foot?" (8 texts, 5 tunes, with only the "C" and "G" versions clearly belonging here; most of the rest are "Pretty Little Foot" texts; "D," "E," and "F" are probably "Fare You Well, My Own True Love") {G=Bronson's #16}
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 37-39, "Oh, Who Will Shoe My Foot" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 18G) {Bronson's #16}
BrownII 22, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, clearly this song, but with the "Storms are on the ocean" verse; this is either the original of the latter or the two combined)
Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 122-123, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (sundry excerpts from versions she did not collect; the versions Scarborough collected are of "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot," "Honey Babe/New River Train," and "I Truly Understand That You Love Some Other Man")
Ritchie-Southern, pp. 78-79, "Fair Annie of the Lochroyan" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #5, a rather different transcription though of the same approximate version}
Leach, pp. 253-256, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
OBB 43, "The Lass of Rochroyan" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 78, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (3 texts, 1 tune, with only the "A" text being this ballad)
Niles 31, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, 2 tunes, the second clearly "The Lass of Roch Royal" but the first could be any "Who's Goin' to Shoe" song)
Gummere, pp. 223-227+352, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
Sandburg, 98-99, "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (3 texts, 1 tune; of the three texts here, "C" is definitely a fragment of this piece, "B" is "The Storms Are on the Ocean"; the "A" text is a "pretty little foot" version)
Combs/Wilgus 21, pp. 118-121, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text)
DBuchan 12, "The Lass of Roch Royal" , 13, "Love Gregor" (2 texts)
JHCox 13, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (2 texts, but one is a "Pretty Little Foot" version)
MacSeegTrav 10, "The Lass of Roch Royal" (1 text, 1 tune)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 65-68, "Love Gregor" (1 text)
Silber-FSWB, p. 214, "The Lass Of Roch Royal" (1 text)
BBI, ZN1259, "I built my love a gallant ship"
DT 76, LORDGREG LORGREG2 LRDGREG2*
Roud #49
RECORDINGS:
Elizabeth Cronin, "Lord Gregory (The Lass of Roch Royal)" (on FSB4, FSBBAL1)
Peggy Delaney, "Maid of Aughrim" (on IRTravellers01)
Jean Ritchie, "Fair Annie of Lochroyan" (on JRitchie01) {Bronson's #5}
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" (floating lyrics) and references there
cf. "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Mary Anne" (lyrics)
cf. "Blackbirds and Thrushes (I)" (theme)
cf. "More Pretty Girls than One" (tune)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lord Gregory
A-Roving On A Winter's Night
Roving On Last Winter's Night
Who's Goin' to Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot
Who's Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot
Sweet Annie of Roch Royal
Annie of Rough Royal
Annie of Lochryan
NOTES: This song has created a great deal of confusion, because of the attempt of certain scholars to make everything a Child Ballad. Some versions of this song contain the verses beginning "Who will shoe your pretty little foot, And who will glove your hand...." Therefore, anything containing these verses is filed by those scholars as Child #76, even though the songs they so file often contain no other portions of "The Lass of Roch Royal" -- and in fact the "pretty little foot" stanzas are not integral to "Roch Royal"; it's my personal feeling that they originated elsewhere and floated into this song, rather than the reverse.
For this yearson, it may be that some of the versions listed here should be classified with "The Storms Are on the Ocean" or other some other song with the "who will shoe your pretty little foot" lyrics. (I eventually tried to clean those out, but it's hard to do after the fact, and for too long I just trusted people who stamped a song "Child 76.") The floating stanzas about shoeing the girl's feet are simply too widespread for any classification effort to be entirely successful; hence the Ballad Index staff created the entry "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot."
After much hesitation, we finally ended up dividing the complex family of songs involving those lyrics as follows:
* "The Lass of Roch Royal" for the ballad of that title
* "Who Will Shoe Your Pretty Little Foot" for fragments too short to classify at all
* "Mary Anne" for the versions specifically about that girl
* "Fare You Well, My Own True Love (The Storms Are on the Ocean, The False True Lover, The True Lover's Farewell, Red Rosy Bush, Turtle Dove)," for everything else.- RBW
Of Child's versions, Peggy Delaney's "Maid of Aughrim" on IRTravellers01 is closest to 76H. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: C076

Lass of Swansea Town, The (Swansea Barracks)


DESCRIPTION: A maid tells a man she is waiting for Willie, a sailor who left eight years ago. She would know him by a scar. He says Willie was killed in battle and told him to look after her. She only wants Willie. Then she sees his scar. They marry.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1842 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2071))
KEYWORDS: courting marriage war reunion beauty dialog sailor separation trick
FOUND IN: Canada(Newf) Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Peacock, pp. 547-548, "The Lass of Swansea Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton-Maguire 45, pp. 136-137,173, "The Lass from Glasgow Town" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASSWANS
Roud #1416
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2071) , "The Lass of --- Town" ("As down by --- barracks"), T. Birt (London), 1833-1841; also Harding B 11(2072), "The Lass of ---town"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" [Laws N36] (plot) and references there
SAME TUNE:
Irish Molly O! (per broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2071) )
NOTES: At the Reinhard Zierke site re Mike Waterson entry for Swansea Town: "A.L. Lloyd said in the Mike Waterson sleeve notes: Behind this is an Irish song, The Blooming Rose of Antrim. Old Phil Tanner, of the Gower Peninsula, South Wales, used to sing it, and perhaps it was he who moved the events to Swansea." It's Waterson's version that repeats the line "She's the blooming rose of South Wales and the Lass of Swansea Town."
However, the version of The Blooming Rose of Antrim I've seen, at Henry's Songbook site, called Flower of Corby's Mill, the form of the ballads is similar and there are some parallel verses but the stories are entirely different: specifically, Antrim has no mention of a lost sailor or his return; the "Blooming Lass" is "the bonny wee lass that works in Corby's Mill."
The CD A Gower Garland by CaLennig includes (Tanner's?) version of "Swansea Barracks" in which the action takes place at Swansea Barracks but the maid is "the blooming rose of South Wales, the lass of Swansea Town." Swansea is in fact in South Wales. Antrim is in Northern Ireland.
As to moving the events to Swansea, it appears from the three Bodleian broadsides, which predate Tanner (1862-1950), that you were to substitute any barracks name you could make into two syllables and the "blooming rose" is equally non-differentiating.
In broadsides Harding B 11(2071) and Harding B 11(2072) she's "the blooming rose of England"; in Peacock "she appeared to be some goddess." - BS
File: Pea547

Lass on Ythanside, The


DESCRIPTION: It is spring and the singer thinks of his Lass on Ythanside. He remembers their summer trysting tree under the stars. He thinks of "where first we met -- and parted last Ah! ne'er to meet again." "Tho' worlds us baith divide" he dreams and thinks of her.
AUTHOR: John Imlah (1799-1846) (source: Imlah, Walker)
EARLIEST DATE: 1827 (Imlah)
KEYWORDS: courting love separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1908, "The Lass on Ythanside" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: John Imlah, May Flowers (London, 1827 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 145-146, "The Lass on Ythanside"
Roud #13552
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Of a' the Airts the Wind Can Blow" (tune, per Imlah)
NOTES: GreigDuncan8's first verse, "The space may spread and days depart ...," is the second version of Imlah's "last half of the last stanza," according to Walker. It was originally "Tho' monie a mile o' shore and sea, Tho' worlds us baith divide, In dream and thought I dwell with thee, Sweet Lass on Ythanside!" (source: William Walker, The Bards of Bon-Accord 1375-1860 (Aberdeen, 1887 ("Digitized by Google")), pp. 421-422). Since the GreigDuncan8 second verse is not in the 1827 text either, I assume it is also a later modification by Imlah. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Grd81908

Lass That Loved a Sailor, The


See When I Was Young; also Rosemary Lane [Laws K43] (File: EM075)

Lass that Loves a Sailor, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer overhears a young man, just come into an inheritance, propose to a maiden. She says she loves a sailor and hopes to be his wife. "No sooner had these words been spoken" than the weather changes, blows her sailor home, and they kiss.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1907 (GreigDuncan5)
KEYWORDS: courting love rejection return reunion sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan5 1034, "The Lass that Loves a Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #6738
File: GrD51034

Lass That Made the Bed to Me, The


DESCRIPTION: The singer is on the road one January night and "to my good luck a lass I met." She invites him to her chamber and makes his bed. He seduces her. Next morning she says "Alas! ye've ruin'd me." He says "ye ay shall mak the bed to me." Presumably they marry
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1796 (Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: marriage seduction sex nightvisit beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 794, "When January Winds Were Blawin' Keen," GreigDuncan8 Addenda, "When January Winds Were Blawin' Keen" (3 texts, 2 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #571, pp. 675-676, "The bonie lass made the bed to me--" (1 text, 1 tune, from before 1796)
Roud #6201
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 14(210), "The Lass That Made the Bed to Me" ("When January's winds were blawing cauld"), W. Stephenson (Gateshead), 1823; also Harding B 11(2076), "The Lass That Made the Bed to Me"
File: GrD4794

Lass with the Bonny Brown Hair, The


See The Maid with the Bonny Brown Hair (File: HHH024)

Lass, Gin Ye Wad Lo'e Me


DESCRIPTION: Dialog. He says he is a kind goodman and would make her lady of his land. She acknowledges his wealth but doubts marriage would make an old man young. He says she may not get such an offer again. She says he can leave "and mind me i' your latter-will"
AUTHOR: Alexander Laing (source: Whistle-Binkie)
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Chambers' Edinburgh Journal No. 196, according to GreigDuncan4)
KEYWORDS: age courting dialog humorous
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan4 813, "Lass, Gin Ye Wad Lo'e Me" (3 texts, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL:Alexander Rodger, editor, Whistle-Binkie, Second Series (Glasgow, 1842), pp. 35-36, "Lass, Gin Ye Wad Lo'e Me"
Roud #6119
NOTES: The title here is from the half-line ending each speech. In sequence, alternating between him and her, the half-lines are "Lass, gin ye wad lo'e me," "I canna, winna lo'e you," "I think you'd better lo'e me," and "Bodie, gin ye lo'e me!" - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD4813

Lass's Wardrobe, The


DESCRIPTION: A young lady was vain about her clothes (her ragged garments are listed) and no lad would take her. The miller wouldn't after she lost her silver. "An' noo she lives 'erlane in a garret Wi' nae and but a cat an' a parrot." "Be nae big aboot your claes"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1845 (Whitelaw); before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(2946))
KEYWORDS: clothes oldmaid
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan7 1372, "Nae Bonnie Laddie Wad Tak Her Awa" (7 texts, 4 tunes)
ADDITIONAL: Alexander Whitelaw, A Book of Scottish Song (Glasgow, 1845), p. 126, "The Lass's Wardrobe"
Roud #895
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2946), "The Lass's Wardrobe" ("A lass lived down by yon burn-braes"), W. Fordyce (Newcastle), 1828-1837; also Harding B 25(1082), "The Lass's Wardrobe"; Harding B 17(161a), "The Lassie's Wardrobe"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(26a), "The Lassie's Wardrobe" ("A lass lived down by yon burn-braes"), unknown, c.1890; also RB.m.143(148), "The Lassie's Wardrobe"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (I)" (theme)
cf. "Queen Mary" (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Dipple Brae
The Aul' Maid
NOTES: Ford, re "Nae Bonnie Laddie tae Tak' Me Away (I)": "A piece with a similar burden, but written in the second person, bearing the title of "The Lass's Wardrobe," may be seen in No. 175 of Chamber's Journal, which is said to have been written by an unmarried lady as a kind of burlesque of her own habits and history. It clearly suggests this song, or this suggested it." "Queen Mary" is another second person song with the same theme but sharing no lines with "The Lass's Wardrobe." Whitelaw considered both songs to be the same. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD71372

Lasses o' Foveran, The


DESCRIPTION: Lasses of Foveran are "foul fisher jauds," of Meldrum "lie wi' the lads," of Skene are "black at the bane," but the flower of Kinellar would dazzle your eyes.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: courting nonballad beauty
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1646, "The Lasses o' Foveran" (1 text)
Roud #13057
NOTES: Foveran, Old Meldrum, and Kinellar are Aberdeenshire parishes. Skene is a town. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81646

Lassie Kens She's Far Better Noo, The


DESCRIPTION: "The lassie kens she's far better noo Wi' a hundred sheep and a sackfu' o' woo. [GreigDuncan8: wool]"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan8)
KEYWORDS: shepherd
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan8 1768, "The Lassie Kens She's Far Better Noo" (1 fragment)
Roud #13016
NOTES: The current description is all of the GreigDuncan8 fragment. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81768

Lassie Lives by Yonder Burn, A


DESCRIPTION: "A lassie lives by yonder burn, That jinks about the seggins, And aft she gies her sheep a turn, To feed amang the bracken." The singer promises that he would "row her in my plaidie" if she would "woo wi' me." He must leave but hopes to return to her
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting separation
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, pp. 229-231, "A Lassie Lives by Yonder Burn" (1 text, 1 tune)
GreigDuncan4 799, "To Row Her in My Plaidie" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Roud #6121
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Though Bogles Meet Me by the Way
File: FVS229

Lassie of the Glen, The


DESCRIPTION: "Beneath a hill 'mang birken bushes, By a burnie's [stream's] dimplit linn [torrent]," the singer says, he and "the lassie o' the glen" confessed their love and would "fondly stray" Now, "unhappy" and far away he recalls those times.
AUTHOR: Angus Fletcher (b.1776) (source: Rogers)
EARLIEST DATE: 1857 (Roger's _The Modern Scottish Minstrel_)
KEYWORDS: courting love lyric
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig #64, p. 2, "The Lassie of the Glen") (1 fragment)
GreigDuncan8 1844, "The Lassie of the Glen" (1 fragment)
ADDITIONAL: Charles Rogers, editor, [The Project Gutenberg EBook (2006) of] The Modern Scottish Minstrel; or, The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century Vol IV (Edinburgh, 1857), p. 294, "The Lassie of the Glen" (translated from the Gaelic by Angus Fletcher)
Roud #13604
NOTES: The Greig/GreigDuncan8 text is a fragment; Fletcher's translation of his Gaelic original is the basis for the description. The Greig/GreigDuncan8 fragment is the first verse of the translation "which has become very popular" [source: John Mackenzie, Sar-Obair Nam Bard Gaelach or THe Beauties of Gaelic Poetry (Glasgow, 1865 ("Digitized by Google")) p. 367].
Fletcher says he was born in 1776 and wrote "The Lassie of the Glen" at the age of 16 [source: Mackenzie]. "The song was first published in the Edinburgh Weekly Journal" [source: Nigel MacNeill, The Literature of the Highlanders (1898, London ("Digitized by Google")), p. 270]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: GrD81844

Lassie wi' the Yellow Coatie


DESCRIPTION: "Lassie wi' the yellow coatie, Will ye wed a muirlan' Jockie? Lassie wi' the yellow coatie, Will ye busk an' gang wi' me?" The singer admits to poverty, but promises to work hard and be true. He warns: "Time is precious, dinna lose it."
AUTHOR: James Duff ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1904 (Ford)
KEYWORDS: courting
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Ford-Vagabond, p. 198, "Lassie wi' the Yellow Coatie" (1 text)
Greig #54, p. 1, "Lassie Wi' the Yellow Coatie" (1 text)
GreigDuncan4 870, "Lassie Wi' the Yellow Coatie" (8 texts, 6 tunes)
Roud #2582
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, 2806 c.15(235), "Lassie Wi' the Yellow Coattie" ("Lassie wi' the yellow coattie"), J. Lindsay (Glasgow), 1851-1910
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Bonnie Lass o' Fintry
NOTES: GreigDuncan4 quoting Duncan or Margaret Gillespie: "From Al. Imlah, Woodhead, Delgaty, about 1860." - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: FVS198

Lassie Will Ye Tak' a Man


DESCRIPTION: He: "Lassie, will ye tak' a [wealthy] man"? She: "De'il take the cash!" He: "I'll buy you claise ... a riding pony ..." She: Joy is what you make of life. He: "Gie's your hand ye'll be my wife ... in love an siller rife Till death wind up the lave o't"
AUTHOR: Robert Tannahill (1774-1810)
EARLIEST DATE: c.1838 (Ramsay)
KEYWORDS: courting love marriage money dialog nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
GreigDuncan8 1862, "Lassie Will Ye Tak' a Man" (1 text)
ADDITIONAL: Phillip A Ramsay, The Poetical Works of Robert Tannahill (London, preface 1838), p. 16, "O Lassie, Will Ye Tak' a Man"
Roud #13499
File: GrD81862

Last Clam Falls Sensation, The


DESCRIPTION: "I got on board a tote team, at the town of Taylors Falls" to set out for a logging camp in 1874. The team arrives after a long, tedious trip. One of the loggers misbehaves with the local women, resulting in a fight between the loggers
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1965 (Dunn, _The St. Croix_, from an uncited source)
KEYWORDS: logging clothes travel fight
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: James Taylor Dunn, _The St. Croix: Midwest Border River_, reprint edition with new introduction published 1979 by the Minnesota Historical Society press, pp. 251-254, "The Last Clam Falls Sensation" (1 text)
NOTES: Information about this song is sadly lacking. Dunn, although he quotes a full text, does not tell his source. It appears to have been a manuscript, not an informant, because most of the names are left blank. Dunn thinks it might have been sung to the tune of "The Jam on Gerry's Rocks," although he does not specify which of the two tunes he means.
Dunn reports that the village of Clam Falls was founded in 1872 by Daniel F. Smith. It is a tiny place, not located on most atlases; it is slightly south of a line between Grantsburg and Shell Lake, Wisconsin, and about half way between the two. It is just about due northeast of Taylors Falls, the starting point of the song, which is on the Saint Croix river (in Minnesota), which is the limit of navigation on that river. Clam Falls is on the Clam River, which eventually flows into the Saint Croix, but its path is too convoluted to serve as a good path to the camp. Frankly, I can't see how they expected to get the logs out of Clam Falls. Which may be why the area was still unsettled in 1872. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.5
File: JTDST251

Last Farewell, The (The Lover's Return)


DESCRIPTION: "So at last you have come back Since time at last has set you free...." The singer recalls his old love for the other -- but concludes that it is all over now: "No, no, you must not take my hand; God never gives us back our youth...."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1932 (Henry)
KEYWORDS: love separation return age infidelity
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Randolph 761, "The Last Farewell" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen, pp. 495,496 "The Last Farewell" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 761A)
MHenry-Appalachians, pp. 152-153, "And So You Have Come Back to Me" (1 text)
Spaeth-WeepMore, pp. 33-34, "Too Late" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3590
File: R761

Last Fierce Charge, The [Laws A17]


DESCRIPTION: Two soldiers, boy and man, are about to ride into battle (at Fredericksburg?). Each asks the other to write to his home should he die. Both are killed; no letter is sent to mother or sweetheart
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1863 (February 7, 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly)
KEYWORDS: war battle death farewell Civilwar
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
June 17, 1775 - Battle of Bunker Hill (fought on Breed's Hill, and won by the British, though at heavy cost)
Dec 13, 1862 - Battle of Fredericksburg. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, well-positioned and entrenched, easily throws back the assault of Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac
July 1-3, 1863 - Battle of Gettysburg. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac holds off Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
June 25, 1876 - Battle of the Little Bighorn. Lt. Colonel George A. Custer (who had been a Major General during the Civil War) is killed, along with the entire force of cavalry (five companies with somewhat over 250 men) with him.
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW,SE,So) Canada(Mar,Newf) Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (16 citations):
Laws A17, "The Last Fierce Charge (The Battle of Fredericksburg, Custer's Last Charge)"
GreigDuncan1 105, "The Two Soldiers" (1 text, 1 tune)
Belden, pp. 383-387, "The Last Fierce Charge" (2 texts plus mention of 1 more, 1 tune)
Randolph 234, "That Last Fierce Fight" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Fuson, pp. 94-96, "The Soldier Boy with Curly Hair" (1 text)
Eddy 139, "The Last Fierce Charge" (2 texts)
Dean, pp. 14-16, "The Charge at Fredricksburg" (1 text)
BrownII 231, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text plus mention of 1 more)
Peacock, pp. 1004-1006, "The Last Great Charge" (1 text, 1 tune, a conflate version)
Creighton-Maritime, pp. 156-157, "Balaclava" (1 text, 1 tune)
Mackenzie 118, "The Battle of Fredericksburg" (1 text)
Dibblee/Dibblee, pp. 86-87, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
Friedman, p. 295, "The Last Fierce Charge" (1 text)
FSCatskills 14, "The Battle of Gettysburg" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fife-Cowboy/West 45, "Custer's Last Charge" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 692, LASTFIER
Roud #629
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Soldier's Letter" (plot)
cf. "I'll Be With You When the Roses Bloom Again" (plot)
cf. "Custer's Last Charge (I)" (subject)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Two Soldiers
Fight at Bunker Hill
The Last Fierce Charge of the French at Waterloo
NOTES: As the list of song titles shows, this piece could be particularized to deal with almost any battle (as, indeed, Belden has a text called "Fight at Bunker Hill," after the Revolutionary War battle. This, however, is historically impossible; the Americans weren't doing any charging at Bunker Hill. In any case, the "Bunker Hill" text never mentions that battle).
Since, however, the second-earliest (and perhaps least famous) event commemorated was the Battle of Fredericksburg, it seems quite likely that the song was originally about that conflict.
Phillips Barry had two texts credited to Virginia F. Townsend -- but even if this is accurate, it may apply only to an adaption; both were "Gettysburg" texts. - RBW
Creighton-Maritime names this "Balaclava" -- I assume the name the singer assigned -- though that is never mentioned in the ballad; Creighton also has a fragment naming the battle as Waterloo, referenced as in ms. as "The Last Great Charge." - BS
Jim Dixon recently pointed out to me a publication that may be the original. It was found in the February 7, 1863 edition of Harper's Weekly. It is titled "At Fredericksburg," and signed L.C.M. There is no tune (unless "L.C.M." is a reference to the meter -- the song does fit the standard definition of Common Meter and at least on definition of Long Meter, sometimes abbreviated LCM). The fact that it appeared just a couple of months after Fredericksburg would seem to imply that it was indeed inspired by that battle.
It is very similar to some of the traditional versions. Despite the title, there is absolutely no explicit reference to Fredericksburg, although the circumstances fit (the Union soldiers charge up a hill and take dreadful casualties). This lack of specificity no doubt made it easier to adapt the song to other circumstances.
Last updated in version 2.4
File: LA17

Last Friday Evening


See I've Travelled This Country (Last Friday Evening) (File: Beld194)

Last Gold Dollar, The


See My Last Gold Dollar (File: R671)

Last Good-Bye


See The Broken Engagement (II -- We Have Met and We Have Parted) (File: Beld212)

Last Letter, The


DESCRIPTION: "Dear love here's a letter It's the last one I'll send For my love's correspondings will soon be at end." He dies with the letter unfinished. She dies from grief when she gets the letter. Now "they dwells each together in a bright home above"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Greenleaf/Mansfield)
KEYWORDS: love parting reunion death
FOUND IN: Canada(Mar,Newf) US
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greenleaf/Mansfield 101, "Lovely Annie" (1 text)
Ives-NewBrunswick, pp. 180-181, "The Unfinished Letter" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #1967
RECORDINGS:
George Riley, "The Last Letter" (Conqueror 7742, 1931)
File: GrMa101

Last Longhorn, The


DESCRIPTION: "An aged longhorn bovine lay dying on the river...." As the bull says it does not wish to live alone, the cowboy watches the passing of their era. The bull dies. The cowboy rides off; "His horse stepped in a dog hole and fell and broke his spine"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1917 ("The Cattleman")
KEYWORDS: cowboy animal death
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Fife-Cowboy/West 115, "The Last Longhorn" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #8015
RECORDINGS:
Carl T. Sprague, "The Last Longhorn" (Victor V-40197, 1930; Mongomery Ward M-4467, 1934; on MakeMe, WhenIWas1)
NOTES: The dating of the Fifes' version is rather strange; the final verse says that the cowboys' "glory has departed in 1889," but earlier it said that the last comrades of the longhorn "were embalmed to feed the boys who were a-fighting Spain" (placing the song after 1898). Since the cow also refers to the 1880s as "some nineteen summers past," the correct date in the final verse is probably 1899.
The longhorn cow was rugged and strong, but stubborn and perhaps not the best source of meat. Thus, after the closing of the frontier in the late eighteenth century, it was supplanted by domestic breeds. Hence this song. - RBW
File: FCW115

Last Moments of Robert Emmet, The


See Bold Robert Emmett (File: PGa032)

Last Month of the Year


See What Month Was Jesus Born In? (File: CNFM245)

Last of the Wooden Walls


DESCRIPTION: "Here Atlantic's foam-wreaths float In aqua-floral tribute to a ship submerged." The unnamed ship's activities are recalled, the men aboard mentioned; we are told of the tears shed when her journeys ended
AUTHOR: Harry R. Burton
EARLIEST DATE: 1952 (Harrington, Poems of Newfoundland)
KEYWORDS: ship nonballad hunting
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ryan/Small, pp. 142-143, "Last of the Wooden Walls" (1 text)
NOTES: Yes, this is as, um, aqua-floral as it looks. Really, it doesn't belong in the Index. But I've done everything else in Ryan/Small; leaving out one of many irrelevant poems because it's irrelevant is rather pointless.
This should not be confused with the various other poems about the decline of sailing ships, several of which share similar titles. - RBW
File: RySm172

Last Parting of Burns and Bonnie Jean


DESCRIPTION: "Come near to me, Jean, come close to my side... That the widow's God may soften the road For my helpless bairns and thee, O." Burns bids farewell. After he dies, she kisses his cold lips and takes a lock of his hair. Burns is buried and widely mourned
AUTHOR: Elizabeth Rennie ?
EARLIEST DATE: 1930 (Ord)
KEYWORDS: death burial separation
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
1759-1796 - life of Robert Burns
1788 - Burns marries Jean Armour (1767-1834)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Ord, p. 356, "Last Parting of Burns and Bonnie Jean" (1 text)
Roud #5606
File: Ord356

Last Rose of Summer, The


DESCRIPTION: "'Tis the last rose of summer, left blooming alone, All her lovely companions are faded and gone." The singer promises not to leave this flower even when other flowers are "scentless and dead": "Oh! Who would inhabit this bleak world alone!"
AUTHOR: Thomas Moore
EARLIEST DATE: 1852
KEYWORDS: flowers love nonballad
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
DT, LASTROSE*
ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 378-379, "The Last Rose of Summer" (1 text)
Charles W. Eliot, editor, English Poetry Vol II From Collins to Fitzgerald (New York, 1910), #487, p. 818, "The Last Rose of Summer" (by Thomas Moore)
Roud #13861
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Castle Hyde" (tune)
cf. "Bells of Shandon" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Groves of Blarney (File: OCon033) (per Hoagland in the notes to "Castle Hyde")
Castle Hyde (Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 254-255)
NOTES: Dr. William Mahar claims this is one of the six most popular songs of the Civil War era. I've no idea what his evidence for this was; I've never seen it mentioned in any Civil War history.
This is another of Moore's pieces that was very popular in print (Granger's Index to Poetry has 15 references to it) but which seems to have had little vogue in tradition. - RBW
File: DTlastro

Last Serenade, The


DESCRIPTION: "I am under your window tonight, love, Giving you my last serenade." The singer says he must leave the girl. "But in the days that are to come we may then be joined in heart.... Serenade, serenade, I am giving you my last serenade."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1941 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love separation farewell
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 742, "The Last Serenade" (1 short text, 1 tune)
Roud #7396
File: R742

Last Speech and Dying Words of the Auld Kirk of Turriff, The


DESCRIPTION: On Halloween the singer rides by the old church and overhears a meeting of testifying spirits. The church testifies about its history, including forced conversion "to Presbetrie." He hopes the new church will "strive to end as I began ... Pure Orthodox"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan3)
KEYWORDS: religious ghost
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan3 692, "The Last Speech and Dying Words of the Auld Kirk of Turriff" (1 text)
Roud #6114
NOTES: GreigDuncan3: "The poem relates to the building of the new parish church of Turiff in 1794." - BS
Last updated in version 2.4
File: GrD3692

Last Token, The


DESCRIPTION: "Come press to your heart this last token, Though 'tis neither silver nor gold, 'Twill remind you of words you have spoken Too fondly to ever be told. When I'm far away a-sleeping... Your first love you'll never forget."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1940 (Randolph)
KEYWORDS: love death
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Randolph 739, "The Last Token" (1 fragment)
Roud #7395
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Little Rosewood Casket"
NOTES: I'm sure this is a fragment of something longer. It may even be elsewhere in the Index. But Randolph's fragment is so short that I can't identify it. - RBW
File: R739

Last Trip in the Fall


DESCRIPTION: "At Nick Hert's mine near Trenton, where we put on eighty tons... we kept right on a-moving... And landed safe in Cleveland, Where we laid up for the fall." The singer tells of cold weather on the Ohio-Erie canal in fall, but will stay with the work
AUTHOR: possibly Pearl R. Nye
EARLIEST DATE: 1971 (OHS)
KEYWORDS: ship travel
FOUND IN: US(MW)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: [no author listed], Scenes & Songs of the Ohio-Erie Canal, Ohio Historical Society, 1971, "Last Trip in the Fall" (1 text, 1 tune, from Pearl R. Nye)
File: OHSLTitF

Last Voyage of the Veteran, The


DESCRIPTION: The captain and ten crewmen "perished in the ocean." A tug was sent out to salvage the Veteran "but the wind it blew so heavy and caused the sea to roar And caused the poor sailors to roll on a lee shore"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (GreigDuncan1)
KEYWORDS: drowning sea ship storm wreck
HISTORICAL REFERENCES:
Nov 29, 1874 - The barque Veteran is wrecked in a storm outside Fraserburgh Harbour [about 40 miles north of Aberdeen] (source: GreigDuncan1)
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
GreigDuncan1 33, "The Last Voyage of the Veteran" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3805
File: GrD1033

Last Winter Was a Hard One


DESCRIPTION: Two Irish women lament the hard times. Neither woman's husband could find a job, and both families suffered. They curse the Italians who have arrived to take Irish jobs. They look forward to better times when their husbands find work
AUTHOR: Words: Jim O'Neil / Music: Jack Conroy
EARLIEST DATE: 1880 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: work poverty unemployment foreigner hardtimes
FOUND IN: US(MA,MW) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Dean, pp. 89-90, "When McGuinness Gets a Job" (1 text)
FSCatskills 98, "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (1 text+fragments, 1 tune)
Ives-DullCare, pp. 111-112,248, "Last Winter Was a Hard One" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, LASTWNTR*
Roud #4607
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Longshoreman's Strike (The Poor Man's Family)" (theme)
NOTES: The sheet music to this is "respectfully dedicated to comptroller John Kelly." John Kelly (1822-1886) was a New York politician. A one-time representative, the Dictionary of American Biography credits him with running Tammany Hall 1873-1882. Thus he would be the chief politician responsible for municipal employment.
See one version of "When McGuinness Gets a Job" [Sheet Music: digital id sm1880 11975], published in New York in 1880, at the Library of Congress American Memory site. - BS
File: FSC098

Last Words of William Shackleford, Executed in Pittsboro, Chatham Co, March 28, 1890


See William S. Shackleford (File: BrII293)

Last Year Was a Fine Crap Year


See Whoa Back, Buck (File: LxU067)
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