Oh, the first place thatI saw my love it was at a ball
I looked on her, I gazed on her, oh, far above them all;
But aye she looked on me with scorn and disdain
And the bonnie wee lassie's answer was to no come again.
[repeat last line of each verse]

The next place that I saw my love it was at a wake,
I looked on her, I gazed on her, I thought my heart would break;
But aye she looked on me with scorn and disdain
and the bonny wee lassies's answer was to no come again.

It being in six months after, a little or above,
When Cupid shot his arrow and he wounded my trye love;
He wounded her severely; it caused her to complain
And she wrote to him a letter saning, "you might come again."

I wrote her back an answer all for to let her know
While life was in her body it's there I wouldnae go,
While life was in my body and while it does remain
I will aye mind the girl that said, "Don't come again."

Come all you pretty fair maids, a warning take by me.
Never slight a young man wherever they may be[sic],
For if you do you're sure to rue, they'll cause you to complain
And you'll aye mind the day you said, "Don't come again"
You will aye rue the day you said "Don't come again"

This is the version Eddie and Grace Butcher of Magilligan, Co. Derry sang. It has also been recorded by Andy Irvine. The text and music are published in hugh Shields, "Shamrock, Rose and Thistle", Belfast: Blackstaff Press, 1981.

SHORES OF BOTANY BAY

I'm on me way down to the quay where the good ship Nell does lay
To command a gang of navvies I was ordered to engage
And I thought I would call in for a while before I sailed away
To take a trip on an immigrant ship to the shores of Botany Bay.

Chorus
Farewell to your bricks and mortar farewell to your dirty lime
Farewell to your gangway and your gang plank and to hell with your overtime
For the good ship Ragamuffin is lying at the quay
For to take old Pat with a shovel on his back to the shores of Botany Bay.

I'm not sure what an authentic version really is. (Won't get into that old line about "It is all folk music ... never seen no horse write a song ...")

Alan's version above includes the 2 traditional stanzas (#1 and #3)and chorus collected from 'Duke' Tritton, a traditional singer (~1885 - 1965), who spent most of his life doing rural work ... when we wasn't digging for gold. #4 was an additional verse that 'Duke' made up to make the song longer (he and a friend used to 'busk' in country towns when they were down on cash). Unfortunately Alan's version loses the typically Irish rhyme royal or internal rhyme in the last line. 'Duke's' original line was:
"In an eight hour day, for eight bob pay, on the shores of Botany Bay."

This was a line that was important to 'Duke', a staunch unionist, being a restatement of a stonemason's and bricklayer's union motto of the late 1800s. They demanded: "Eight hour's work, eight hour's play and eight hours sleep" ... achieved as a world-wide first in improved working conditions. (At the time, many workers in Britain were still working 12 or 14 hours a day, six day a week!)

#2 is a modern verse, which I first heard on a recording of the modern (1970s - to present ... with 48 changes in the line-up) "Bushwackers group ('Duke' was associated with the earlier Bushwhackers of the early/mid 1950s that defined the modern revival idea of a "Bush Band"..)

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Chet

I can then notate the tune and submit to the Mudcat Midi site.

Regards, John