The following appeared in the ‘Thanet Items’ section of the East Kent Times and Mail, 25^th May 1904:

A writer in a county journal says:—”All Kentish people have cause to remember with gratitude a lady who has just passed away at Margate. I refer to Miss de Vaynes, to whom the county is indebted for the existence in collected form of many old Kentish songs and ballads, as well as a large number of fugitive poems relating to Kent. In making this invaluable collection, which is published in two volumes under the title of ‘The Kentish Garland,’ Miss de Vaynes had the benefit of the assistance of the Rev. Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth,  Vicar of Molash, near Ashford, and a great authority on English ballad lore.”

Julia Henrietta Louisa De Vaynes, 1853-1904

Julia De Vaynes was born on 23^rd January 1853, and baptised at the church of St John the Baptist, Margate. Her father, William Angus De Vaynes, had been described in the 1851 census as “Landed proprietor”; her Irish mother Julia, according to a newspaper obituary, “was descended from Conal-Eachwath, King of Munster, A.D. 366” and also from the “royal line of Plantagenet”.¹ She was brought up in the family home of Updown House, St Johns, Margate, and having lived elsewhere in Margate and Ramsgate she returned there towards the end of her life – the 1901 census shows her as “Landowner manor” – and it was there that she died on May 16^th 1904. The Kentish Express, 21^st May 1904 reported her death as follows:

Lovers of old Kentish ballads will hear with deep regret of the death of Miss Julia Henrietta L. De Vaynes, the talented authoress of the “Kentish Garland,” which took place suddenly at Updown House, Margate, on Monday, at the age of fifty-one. Miss De Vaynes was the daughter of the late Captain De Vaynes, and was of Huguenot descent, her ancestors having come to this country after the Revocation of Nantes.

As well as compiling The Kentish Garland she also edited A Huguenot Garland, a collection of Huguenot songs, published in 1890.

Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth

Born on 2^nd September 1824 in Lambeth, Ebsworth trained as an artist, and taught at the Glasgow School of Design before being ordained at York in 1864. He became vicar of Molash in January 1871 and remained there until his retirement in 1894, when he moved, initially to 13 Wellesley Villas, Ashford, and later to The Priory, Sackville Crescent, Godinton Road, Ashford.

Molash was a poor parish – the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography quotes a letter in which he described himself as “choir-master, clerk, sexton, pastor, parish church-warden and sole paymaster”, although the ODNB also records that “he devoted most of his time to literary work at home and to research in the British Museum”.² He became an energetic supporter of the Ballad Society, and was responsible for editing and preparing for publication several volumes of ballads, including the final six volumes of the Society’s edition of the 17^th century Roxburghe Ballads.

Ebsworth died on 7^th June 1908, and was buried in Ashford cemetery on 11^th June.

The Kentish Garland

In his book Victorian Songhunters E. David Gregory characterised the publication thus:

The Kentish Garland looked back to the vogue for regional collections started by James Halliwell and continued by Davison Ingledew, John Harland, Llewellynn Jewitt, and Thomas Allan. The approach was essentially antiquarian, and there was no material collected directly from oral tradition. The Kentish Garland came in two large volumes, published in 1881-1882, edited by Julia H. L. de Vaynes, a close friend of Joseph W. Ebsworth, who contributed the illustrations and some of the notes. In compiling the books de Vaynes drew on Ebsworth’s personal collection of ballads and poems relating to Kent, and she had no lack of suitable material. This superfluity allowed her to be selective, and one of her editorial decisions was to omit “all coarse ballads.” Recognizing that “the days and modes of speech of our old song-writers were different from our own” and that “words which fall unheeded on the ears of one age jar unpleasantly in the next,” she also felt constrained in a few instances to censor her remaining material, opting to “sacrifice a few lines” or to replace “offensive phrases” by invented substitutes in square brackets. As a result, The Kentish Garland failed to give a comprehensive picture of the popular culture of the county, and the number of vernacular songs included in the publication was surprisingly small despite de Vaynes’s extensive use of broadsides as primary sources.³

In other words, the material in The Kentish Garland was about Kent, not necessarily from Kent. The collection included some content which was entirely literary in nature, and there were relatively few songs which were sung by ordinary people in Kent – at least, not in the 1880s. Having said that, there were some, such as ‘The Rambling Sailor’, which were taken from broadside ballad sheets, but which have been collected from oral tradition, and which one would definitely class as “vernacular song” or “folk song”.

The two volumes were well received at the time. For instance the Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 21^st May 1881, posted the following notice:

“THE KENTISH GARLAND.”-A handsomely-bound volume of ballads relating to the county of Kent has just been issued under this title, the work having been edited by Miss Julia H. L. De Vaynes, of Margate. This collection of Kentish ballads is the only one ever issued, and thus it will, in all probability, become exceedingly popular. Miss De Vaynes has put together, in admirably arranged order, a series of songs and ballads dating several centuries back, which are accompanied by interesting notes by Mr. J. W. Ebsworth, M.A., F.S.A., who has written an appropriate prelude entitled “The Men of Kent.”

The ballads and other pieces have been taken from the British Museum and Oxfordshire collections and other printed and manuscript sources; they relate to all parts of Kent, and comprise a great many election ditties, and songs on the Kentish Volunteers, bowmen, hopmen, cricketers, &c. Some of the pieces are exceedingly quaint, and those on election matters will be perused with peculiar interest. Two of these, which conclude the “Election group,” refer to the stormy period of the Catholic Emancipation Act; the first, ” Blue Banners with a green border,” appeared in the Times of October 21, 1828, and, we are told, was sung at the Star Inn, Maidstone, during an Anti-Brunswick Dinner, the Earl of Darnley in the chair, supported by Lord Sondes, etc.” We quote the refrain :

“March, march, Brydges and Winchelsea
Why don’t ye Brunswickers march in good order ?
March, march, Wells ‘of the bloody knee!’
All the blue banners have got a green border!”

There is a sonnet by Wordsworth (1803), and among the authors of other poems are Sir Walter Scott, Charles Dibdin, the elder, Jolin Oxenford, Walter Thornbury, W. C. Bennett, and Mr. Ebsworth. Miss De Vaynes states in her preface that The Kentish Garland is “not long to be left unaccompanied; ” and while congratulating her upon this first collection, we can assure her that another volume of these old Kentish songs and ballads will be cordially welcomed. We ought to say that the work has been well printed by Messrs. Stephen Austin and Sons, of Hertford, and admirably bound by Mr. H. J. Goulden, of Canterbury.

The two volumes were put out by a Hertford publisher, hence the extensive coverage in the Hertford Mercury and Reformer. The issue for 15^th July 1882 quoted at length from an article on ballad illustrations which had appeared in The Bibliographer, “a Journal of Book-lore”:

Miss Julia de Vaynes has collected into two handsome volumes the most interesting and representative ballads connected with the county of Kent, and in her labour of love she has been greatly assisted by Mr. Ebsworth, one of our greatest ballad authorities. Mr. Ebsworth has not been content to throw out the stores of his erudition in notes; but he has contributed a series of woodcuts, which are copied from the original ballads and are greatly improved by the process of transfer. The history of ballad illustrations has still to be written, and we hope that some day Mr. Ebsworth will write such a history. Woodcuts that had become too old and worn for the books they were made for were handed over to the ballad printer, who used them with very little regard to their Illustration of the ballads to which he joined them. Sometimes the block was too big for the purpose required, and it was at once ruthlessly cut in in half; not only that, but the same woodcuts were used over and over again, and the accepted lover of one ballad did duty as the indignant father of another. Mr. Ebsworth has retained the quaintness, but he has thrown a spirit over the whole that undoubtedly will not be found in the original.

We have a representation of two ballad singers at Sevenoaks fair in olden time. A few names of ballad-singers have come down to us, and some stories which tell of their earnings. Henry Chettle, in his Kind Hart’s Dream 1592), mentions the sons of one Barnes who boasted they could earn twenty shillings a day by singing ballads at Bishop’s Stortford and places in the neighbourhood. ‘Out roaring Dick’ earned ten shillings a day by singing at Braintree fair. A gipsy named Alice Boyce, who came to London in Elizabeth’s reign, paid the expenses of her journey up to London by singing the whole way. She had the honour of singing ‘O the Broom’ and ‘Lady Green Sleeves” before the Queen. The ballad writers were mostly on the side of the king at the period of the Civil War; and in 1648 Captain Betham was appointed Provost Marshal with power to seize upon ballad-singers. After the Restoration, at a time when the Court was out of popular favour, it was discovered that ballad-singers had too much liberty; and as late as 1763 we learn that two women were sent to Bridewell for singing political ballads before Lord Bute’s door in South Audley Street. Dorothy Fuzz was a famous ballad singer at Sevenoaks fair, but we suppose she lived at a later date than the man and woman shown in our illustration. This Kentish Garland does great credit to the taste and research of Miss De Vaynes, who has brought together much interesting matter connected with the ever-memorable county of Kent. Mr. Ebsworth has added two full indexes—one of first lines, burdens and tunes, the other of authors, titles, subjects, etc. At the head of this second index is a woodcut of the female drummer, which we are told may be taken to symbolize the fair editor, with J. W. playing second fiddle or fife and subscribers following. Prefixed to the list of subscribers is a pretty little vignette in which we see a board with this inscription, ‘Notice—no begging allowed here.’ Lower down we that the issue is strictly limited to one hundred and fifty copies, and that a few remain unsubscribed for. We expect that these copies will not remain much longer.

The same newspaper, on 2nd September 1882, contained an even longer article, reproduced from The Times, of which this is but an extract:

Nearer to the heart than the love of country lies the love of county, and there are people with whom it becomes an absorbing and engrossing passion. No one goes so heartily about a grand piece oi literary life work as your fervid county historian, who has money and leisure and pronounced archaeological tastes; who is learned in mediaeval architecture, and curious in legends and pedigrees. Kent, with its Hasteds and Lambardes and their humbler followers, is especially rich in county histories which have treated its manifold attractions—historical, picturesque, domestic, and romantic—with all the minuteness of scholarly detail. But the richer the harvest, the more is left for the gleaners; and Miss De Vaynes and Mr. Ebsworth have supplemented the more serious labours of their predecessors by gathering a variegated Garland of Kentish poetry. They do not profess to stand upon the excellence of the verses in their collection, and many of these are more characteristic than beautiful, as will be obvious when we say that a most miscellaneous collection is contained in a couple of portly octavo volumes, and that the harmonious measures of a Spenser or a Waller are mingled with doggerel catchpenny ballads and effusions disentombed from the poets’ corners of the county journals of former generations. The sole condition of admission consists in the more or less questionable metre being illustrative  of something in connexion with the county. Yet there can be no question that not only to Kentish men, but to archaeologist in general, the quaint medley will be of great interest. Kent has always been in many ways a representative county. To the south it is washed by the narrow waters that divide our Island from the nearest Continental ports, while on the northern side it touches the confines of the metropolis. It was the Kentish men who bore the brunt of the foreign invasions ; who boasted of dictating conditions to the Conqueror, and of bringing his fierce half-brother of Bayeux to reason ; and who, repeatedly mustering in their masses under popular leaders, marched on the Court and the capital in defence of popular rights. Kentish men went to man the fleets that lay at their moorings in the Downs, and the smuggling cutters that ran their cargoes everywhere, storing contraband in the caverns in the chalk cliffs. Kent has supplied to contemporary biography  a superabundance of martyrs, and highwaymen, while it has always been intimately associated with literary men from the days of the munificent Archbishop Lanfranc down to those of Charles Dickens. We have the humours of the Canterbury pilgrimages as celebrated by Chaucer, and the humours of Greenwich fair, as sung for coppers at street corners. There are pre-historic remains like those of Kit’s Coty House ; there are ecclesiastical piles like the Cathedral of Canterbury ; and there arc castles and balls, restored or in ruins, once associated with noble and knightly families which are nothing more nowadays, than a name and a memory. The Kentish bowmen immortalized themselves from Hastings to Agincourt; the wealth of the yeomen of the Weald, represented by Mr. Wardle, of the Manor Farm, in recent fiction, had passed into a proverb in the time of the Plantagenets ; while the fiercely contested battles of the hustings which half ruined more than one of the most ancient families exercised a greater influence on contemporary politics than those of Lancashire or the Ridings of Yorkshire. So that Miss De Vaynes’s industry easily found material for her collection ; while Mr. Ebsworth has contributed a variety of notes full of antiquarian and historical learning.

The two volumes of The Kentish Garland are available to view on the Internet Archive:

• Volume 1
• Volume 2

1. Kentish Gazette, 14 September 1886 ↩︎
2. Ridler, Ann Margaret,  ‘Ebsworth, Joseph Woodfall (1824–1908), literary editor and artist’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography,  September 23, 2004. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-32964 ↩︎
3. E. David Gregory, Victorian Songhunters: The Recovery and Editing of English Vernacular Ballads and Folk Lyrics, 1820-1883, Lanham:Scarecrow, 2006, p367 ↩︎

William George Glanfield, 1855-1935

William Glanfield was born at the School House, Sandgate on 29^th March 1855, and baptised at St Paul’s, Sandgate, on 30^th May. His father – also William – was head master at the National School in Sandgate from 1854 to 1884, and this was the school which young William attended. When he left school he was apprenticed to a Folkestone printer, and then worked for a printing company in London. On returning to Folkestone, he joined the staff of the Folkestone Chronicle, subsequently absorbed by the Folkestone Herald (there were four rival newspapers in the town at that time). His association with the Folkestone Herald began in November 1891, about six months after the birth of that newspaper. His obituary in the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 2^nd February 1935, recorded that

In the first special article that he penned for the paper to which he was to devote his life during the next 44 years, there was a touch of romance and drama. It was a graphic account of the wreck of the “Benvenue,” a ship which was wrecked at Sandgate on November 11th, 1891, in a terrific gale. It was this story of the terrible peril of the crew of the wrecked vessel and the gallant attempts at rescue that “Felix” submitted to the then very young “Folkestone Herald.” It was accepted, and in the issue of the paper that week appeared a picture of the rescued crew. “Felix” had taken the precious negative to London and returned to Folkestone with the process block from which the first picture of the kind was printed in a local newspaper. […]

It was a memorable beginning to a great career In which his powers as a descriptive writer were so often brilliantly used.

Under the non-de-plume ‘Felix’, Glanfield was most closely associated with the “About the neighbourhood” columns which appeared in the paper. In these he wrote about local events he had attended, and about characters he had met, and the sights he had seen, on his lengthy walks around the countryside. The events sometimes included harvest homes and hunt suppers, where singing might take place, while the local characters he wrote about were sometimes identified as singers. These included Charley Appleton, James Rye, George Mount, and Tom Catt. He did not himself collect any folk songs; indeed when he reproduced the words of ‘We are all Jolly Fellows that Follow the Plough’ in his column, these had been written out and sent to him by Charley Appleton.

Glanfield himself was a singer, for 19 years a member of the choir of Holy Trinity, Folkestone, with whom he took the role of bass soloist: “He had a voice of quality, and could sing some of the best-loved of the older songs with tremendous feeling”.¹ The phrase “older songs” here almost certainly does not refer to traditional folk songs, but is probably reflective of his distaste for more modern musical styles (see the article quoted below, headed ‘The Folkestone Harbour Marine Staff’). His writings about singing events, certainly towards the end of his life, are decidedly nostalgic, but consistently applaud and promote the virtues of “community singing”. For example, writing in 1934 about the singing of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ at an annual dinner of the Shorncliffe Drag Hunt some forty years earlier, he concludes

Singing! Rough and ready it might have been, but what a treat to hear those yeomen “go it.” ²

William Glanfield was knocked down by a motor car in November 1934 and, after having spent some time in hospital, he died at his home, 6 Russell Road, Folkestone, on 29^th January 1935, at the age of 79.

Extracts from Glanfield’s writing

HARVEST HOME AT NEWINGTON.

FARM HANDS ENJOY A SUBSTANTIAL DINNER.

A CELEBRATED BRAND OF BEEF PUDDINGS.

“THE EMPEROR OF NEWINGTON, “KING OF CHERITON,” AND “SHAH OF FOLKESTONE.”

A RATTLING GOOD EVENING.

(By Felix.).

We are just now in the thick of harvest celebrations, both religious and secular. I have no doubt that nearly all the company I had the pleasure of meeting on Wednesday evening at the “Star,” Newington, had been at least reminded of the spiritual lessons of the ingathering of the crops, and thus, in a measure, they had been prepared for the festivity, which, so far as Cheriton and Newington are concerned, marks an annual red-letter day in the lives of those who “plough the fields and scatter the good seed on the land.” This harvest home, unique in its way, is given to the men in their employ by Mr. Quested, of “The Firs,” Cheriton, and Mr. F. Graves, of “Pound Farm,” Newington. For six months in the year the past Celebration is a pleasant memory, and during the other half of the twelve months, the coming festivity provides the pleasures of anticipation. Five years have slipped past since I was enabled to accept the hospitality of the founders of this particular feast.

OPPORTUNITY, HOWEVER, OFFERED ITSELF

on this occasion. Accordingly I found myself at the celebrated hostelry referred to on the evening in question. Here I had the pleasure of meeting Alderman Banks, a number of invited guests, and about fifty sons of toil. The dining room was a picture and a reminder of the special nature of the celebration. From the ceiling were suspended huge specimens of gourds, mangold wurtzels, marrows, cow cabbage, cauliflower, turnips, etc., whilst autumnal flowers added yet another touch of colour and brightness to the scene, which was lighted by means of oil lamps and candles. When the senior Alderman of Folkestone, surrounded by several old and young friends, sank into his comfortable arm-chair, he received a right down hearty welcome from the assembled company. Dressed all in their Sunday best, each wearing a flower or wisp of corn in their coats, these workers, with their ruddy, shining faces, presented a typical picture of the English agricultural labourer. The clear air of Wednesday last will be remembered for its exhilarating qualities, and this, coupled with the healthful calling of the men, will readily account for the fact that appetites were in perfect condition. No supper at the “Star” would be complete without a supply of Mrs. Maycock’s special brand of Newington beef puddings.

THESE DELICACIES ARE FAMED THE COUNTRY ROUND,

and the farm hands swear by them. Offer these sons of toil clear or thick ox-tail soup, turbot, and shrimp sauce, or salmon and cucumber, and their faces would probably wear a look of disgust or wonderment, , but substitute beef pudding for these, and then they will understand matters, adding, perhaps, by way of comment: “Ah! That’s the tackle, There’s summut there to lay hold on.” Therefore, when the stalwart sons of Mr. Maycock entered the room, each bearing on a dish a mammoth and steaming beef pudding, knives and forks were seized almost involuntarily. Mr. “Freddy” Graves and Mr. Councillor Quested,

EACH ARMED WITH A CARVER,

proceeded to cut the light crust of the puddings, and as the water gushed out of the rock at the touch of Moses, so did the delicious gravy at the hands of the gentlemen mentioned. Thereafter the puddings (during the short time they remained) were as islands of beef and crust, surrounded by rich gravy. Mashed turnips, floury potatoes, and tender cabbage, also contributed to the first course, which a neighbouring ploughman remarked, was very well by way of foundation. Puddings are generally supposed to be satisfying. One helping is generally thought to be amply sufficient to meet the requirements of an average townsman, but with the “man on the land,” it is a mere “paving of the way.” Thus it was that when rounds of roast beef and boiled legs of mutton made their appearance, only to disappear, that somewhat Nelsonian command

was strictly obeyed : “Newington expects that every man, this night, will do his duty.” Just by way of settling these substantial courses, “Christmas” puddings were then discussed with astounding vigour. Now

EMPTY PLATES AND SATISFIED EXPRESSIONS

told their own eloquent tale. Mr. Evans, the ever genial manager of the Royal Pavilion Hotel, graced the company with his presence, and I doubt, with all his experience of banquets, and their tempting menus, if he ever gazed upon a company that did better justice to a spread than did the guests over at Newington. The Alderman having “returned thanks,” tables were cleared, “Churchwarden” pipes, “jugs of beer,” and beverages from the Emerald Isle and North of the Tweed, were now much in evidence. “Minerals” also there were in plenty for those who needed them. The Chairman, in spite of the 76 years that weigh lightly upon him, was in his best form—full of “go,” racy, and witty. In glowing Ianguage he proposed the health of “The Queen,” and in doing so he expressed his opinion that in 50 years’ time the English language would be almost universal. The toast was accorded the usual loyal honours, Mr. Percy Greenstreet presiding at the piano. Thereafter

SPEECH AND SONG ALTERNATED.

Dick Mount, a farm hand of some seventy summers, in a twenty-verse song, told the story of a bashful swain and an innocent country lass, whilst another follower of the plough related in a ditty the doings of a certain little tailor of Dover³, much to the amusement of the company. Other successful vocal efforts were also duly enjoyed, and notable amongst these were the contributions of the ill-used Folkestone minstrels. A few toasts were proposed. One ancient countryman, in lieu of a song, was heard to express himself to the following effect :-

“Here’s to mountains of beef
And rivers of beer,
A good-temper’d wife,
And a thousand a year.”

Perhaps the first three he has realised, but whether the thousand will ever come to him time alone will prove. Let us hope so, but perhaps, after all, he is just as happy without it.

ALDERMAN BANKS,

in a humorous speech, proposed “The Founders of the feast,” Messrs. Quested and Graves. The former gentleman is generally known as Chairman of the Cheriton Urban District Council, but the Alderman has conferred upon him the title of the King of Cheriton, whilst the owner of Pound Farm is henceforward to be known as the “Emperor of Newington.” Thus the senior Alderman orders it. The Chairman then proceeded to give a learned dissertation on matters generally appertaining to agriculture, and, in the course of his remarks, proceeded to tell the labourers that they were better off than their masters, that was, “If they could only see it.” He had known both Mr. Quested and Mr. Graves for several years, and from what he knew of them both, he had no hesitation in describing them as “jolly good fellows.” The company, now warming up to the occasion, appeared to agree with this latter opinion, for the men burst out in loud applause.  The “The Emperor of Newington” replied and acknowledged, in grateful terms,

THE GAME OLD ALDERMAN’S

remarks, expressing a hope they would be able to welcome him on many similar occasions. “The King of Cheriton,” not to be outdone in courtesy, expressed the pleasure it gave him to listen to Alderman Banks’ remarks, and before sitting down he felt he was only interpreting the wishes of all when he conferred upon the Alderman a fresh title. A few days since, at a meeting at the Town Hall, Sir Ed. Sassoon had described the chairman as The “Grand Old Man of Folkestone,” but he (Mr. Quested) would go a step further in exchange for the honours accorded both himself and his colleague by conferring upon the Alderman the title of “The Shah of Folkestone.” Amidst loud laughter the speaker concluded by proposing the Chairman’s health. “The Shah,” in acknowledging the honour, said although he did not possess so many wives as the eastern potentate, he was very well satisfied with one. He could assure them all he was proud of his new title, and would do his best to be worthv of his exalted position. The speaker concluded a characteristic racy speech by declaring that although at his advanced age he could not expect to be present at many more such gatherings, yet he hoped they would meet for many years in a similar manner, for it was well that men and masters should gather round the festive board. The hour’s extension (11 o’clock) having been reached, the company separated, the farm hands to dream of beef pudding; the royalty” and other guests of a more pleasant diversion from the ordinary trammels of daily existence. ⁴

The Folkestone Harbour Marine Staff.

On Saturday night I found myself in the company of as jolly a lot of young fellows as could wish to meet. They were the rank and file of those that do duty in handling the goods traffic when, as a rule, Folkestone is sleeping. They celebrated their existence on Saturday evening by enjoying what might be described as a “cut and come again” kind of repast. There were no printed menus, but there was a choice of roast or boiled (the latter with trimming,). There were no “hedgers.” Every man did his duty in this respect, and after their hearty repast they could adopt the lines of the song

“I feel content with all mankind,
For life’s a sea of pleasure.”

But although this kind of sentiment may be of a transient nature, yet it is wonderful how these little functions draw people together. In the long run it all tends to friendship and comradeship. On this occasion there was a flow of songs, not of the American jazz order, but those good old British ditties, that stand the test of time—”the songs my mother used to sing.” Time after time have I attended pleasant little functions where songs have a place, but invariably I have heard people express themselves after a fill of jazz. “Ah! After all, there is nothing like the old songs.” This gathering I was at on Saturday night was at the Harvey Hotel, where it was my lot a year or so ago to sit out an after-dinner programme. In the afternoon I had listened at the Pleasure Gardens to that great artiste, Mr. John Coates, who rendered in his incomparable style some of those now little known old English songs of periods long ago. It was a delightful experience. In the evening I had to hear the following twentieth century composition set to “jazz ” music:-

“I love doughnuts with jam in the
Jam in the middle, jam in the middle.'”

The contrast was great, and the more so owing to the rendering of another ditty termed, “They think I’m not all there.” But on Saturday last we had the “good old timers” including “Rocked in the Cradle of the Deep,”  “The Farmer’s Boy,” “The Village Blacksmith,” and others of that ilk. As a sturdy harbour porter remarked to me: ” Say, Felix, there is ‘something to eat’ in those kind of songs.” Yes, that event at the Harvey Hotel reminded me of the good old sing-songs and “friendly leads” of years ago. I would like to see more of them. I firmly believe there will be a revival in this respect. ⁶

Further extracts from “About the neighbourhood” columns by ‘Felix’ can be found in the articles on Charley Appleton, James Rye, George Mount, and Tom Catt.

1. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 02 February 1935 ↩︎
2. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 03 March 1934 ↩︎
3. This song was most probably Roud 570, known under various titles including ‘The Bold Boatswain of Dover’ and  ‘The Boatsman and the tailor’. Francis Collinson noted down a 2 verse version in Pembury in 1952 – see ‘There was a jolly boatman’. ↩︎
4. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 06 October 1900 ↩︎
5. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 19th February 1927 ↩︎
6. Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 28th January 1928 ↩︎

Lucy Etheldred Broadwood, 1858-1929

Lucy Broadwood was born at Melrose in Scotland. Her father Henry was a partner in the well-known Broadwood piano manufacturing company, senior partner from 1861 until his death. In 1864 the family moved to Lyne House, the Broadwood family home near Rusper,on the Surrey-Sussex border.

A talented singer and pianist, Lucy’s interest in folk song was prompted by her uncle, the Reverend John Broadwood, who had assembled a collection of sixteen songs, privately published in 1847, with the title Old English Songs, As Now Sung by the Peasantry of the Weald of Surrey and Sussex, and Collected by One Who Has Learnt Them by Hearing Them Sung Every Christmas from Early Childhood, by the Country People, Who Go About to the Neighbouring Houses, Singing, or “Wassailing” as It is Called, at that Season. This was republished by Lucy as Sussex Songs in 1889, in an expanded edition which included a number of songs which Lucy herself had collected by in the 1880s, and at least one collected by her father.

Having established links with other folk song enthusiasts, notably Sabine Baring-Gould in the West Country, in 1893 – a full decade before Cecil Sharp or Vaughan Williams began their collecting activities – she was able to publish English County Songs. This was edited with John Alexander Fuller Maitland (1856–1936), a music critic and writer who was also a relative of Lucy Broadwood, and a close friend throughout her life. This book attempted to present at least one song associated with each county. Kent is represented by just one song, ‘John Appleby’. In common with a number of other songs in the book, this was not collected directly by Broadwood, but had been sent to her by a correspondent – in this case, by Samuel Willett, “the singing baker of Cuckfield”, in Sussex. Willett had heard it sung by “Kentish hop-pickers”.

In 1898 Broadwood was one of the 110 founding members of the Folksong Society. She became honorary secretary in 1904 and played an important role in establishing the new body, making frequent contributions to its Journal. Her collecting activities took place primarily in Sussex; she does not appear to have collected any songs in Kent. However she was sent four songs with Kentish connections by Mrs Lucy Grahame of St Leonards in Sussex, while Ella Bull of Cottenham in Cambridgeshire sent her a version of ‘Spencer the Rover’, collected “from a Kentish man and woman”.

Edith Sophy Lyttelton, née Balfour, 1865-1948

Born in St Petersburg, the daughter of a London businessman who traded and lived in Russia for many years. She was a member of the “the Souls”, a loose-knit group of intellectuals and politicians active at the end of the nineteenth century. Another member was the Liberal Unionist MP Alfred Lyttleton, whom she married in 1892. They bought Wittersham House, a Georgian Rectory in a state of considerable disrepair, and in 1907 commissioned the architect Edward Lutyens to completely remodel and rebuild the property.

In August 1909 she accompanied Percy Grainger on his song-collecting visit to Samuel Holdstock at Mill House, Wittersham. Presumably, knowing that Mr Holdstock had a stock of old songs, she invited Grainger down to Kent specifically to note these down. A letter from Lyttleton to Grainger, dated 10^th May 1910, shows that she had visited the old man again, in an effort to note down the full words of his song ‘Mary Thomson’ (PG/15/1).

Following the death of her husband in 1913, she became heavily involved in spiritualism. At the start of the First World War she was a founder of the War Refugees Committee, became deputy director of the Women’s Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture in 1917, and served on the Central Committee of Women’s Employment from 1916–1925. In 1917 she was one of the first people to be awarded the newly-created Order of the British Empire, in recognition of her work with refugees. After the war she served as vice-chairman of the Waste Reclamation Trade Board (1924–1931) and represented the UK at the League of Nations on several occasions. As well as her public work, she wrote fiction, non-fiction and plays. Having married into the Lyttleton family, she was related to Humphrey Lyttleton, the jazz trumpeter, and chairman of the radio programme I’m sorry I haven’t a clue.

Percy Aldridge Grainger, 1882-1961

Brought up in Melbourne, Australia, after completing his musical studies in Germany the composer made his living as a concert pianist and private teacher in London between 1901 and 1914. His song collecting work began in 1905 in Lincolnshire. The following year he began to make use of the Edison Phonograph to record folk songs – notably from the remarkable Lincolnshire singer Joseph Taylor. His enthusiastic use of this new technology distinguished him from all other early 20^th century collectors in Britain. By 1910 he had collected songs in around a dozen counties, including five from Samuel Holdstock at Wittersham in August 1909. On that occasion he was accompanied by Mrs Edith Lyttleton, who lived at Wittersham, and had probably invited Grainger down specifically to hear Mr Holdstock sing.

Grainger and his mother went to America at the outbreak of war in 1914. He became an American citizen, and remained in the United States for the rest of his life.

George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, 1885-1916

The composer George Butterworth, a close friend of Ralph Vaughan Williams, joined the Folk-Song Society in 1906. He collected several dozen songs between 1906 and 1913, in counties including Herefordshire, Shropshire, Norfolk and Oxfordshire but, especially, in Sussex – it was a Sussex version of ‘The Banks of Green Willow’ which provided the inspiration for one of his best-known compositions. He was also a founding member of the English Folk Dance Society. He collected morris tunes and dances, and was a key member of the EFDS demonstration team.

He made only one collecting trip to Kent, noting three songs in the Minster Workhouse in September 1910:

• The Bold Fisherman
• Bold General Wolfe
• The Bold Princess Royal.

There are of course two places called Minster in Kent, and both had a workhouse. However it seems most likely that he was following in the footsteps of his friend Francis Jekyll, who had collected two songs in the Sheppey Union Workhouse the previous month, in August 1910.

Regrettably, Butterworth did not record the name of the singer of these three songs – indeed we don’t have any indication if all three were sung by the same person. This failure to note down their name was disrespectful, to say the least. Noone entered the workhouse willingly, and becoming an inmate brought shame, and a loss of personal dignity. It might have been some small recompense if the poor singer’s name had been recorded for posterity, alongside their songs.

Butterworth enlisted as an officer in the 13th Durham Light Infantry at the outbreak of World War I. He was recommended for the Military Cross on three occasions, and was awarded the medal twice – the second time in recognition of his conduct on the morning 5^th August 1916, at Pozieres during the first battle of the Somme This was also the day he met his death, and he was buried at the front. He was one of three members of the pre-war EFDS demonstration team who failed to return from the war.