From the Batt Brothers
Collected by Francis Collinson, Bethersden, 25 Jun 1942
Francis Collinson Manuscript Collection (COL/1/11)
An identical version, but with only two verses, was collected from the Batt Brothers’ relative Tom Batt in 1941: Come Come My Pretty Maid
From Charley Appleton
Sent to ‘Felix’ and printed in the Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 5th November 1932
Collected by Ella Bull, 5th March 1910, “from a Kentish man and woman”, Cottenham, Cambridgeshire
Lucy Broadwood MSS Collection LEB/5/88, LEB/5/89
Sent by Lucy Grahame to Lucy Broadwood, April 1904
Lucy Broadwood MSS Collection LEB/5/182/1, LEB/5/182/2
Roud 4, Child 73
“The name of this Ballad is not known”.
“Learnt orally from the daughters of a Kentish Squire; the last of whom died in 1865 at a very advanced age”.
Lucy Grahame seemed to have some doubts as to whether the melody as transcribed was a correct rendering of “the tune which I heard in my childhood”.
When sending this song to Lucy Broadwood, she pondered on the relationship between ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Eleanor’ and ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Annet (both are now in fact ascribed the same Roud number). She had a niece copy out what is very clearly a Scottish set of words for the ballad ‘Lord Thomas and Fair Annet’, as printed in Old English ballads, Nelson & Sons, 1887 (LEB/5/179). That collection had originally been published by Ward and Lock in 1864, and can be found on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_3gAnoD1n58QC/page/n103/mode/2up
Sent by Lucy Grahame to Lucy Broadwood, April 1904
Lucy Broadwood MSS Collection LEB/5/181/1, LEB/5/181/2, Journal of the Folk-Song Society 2 (1905) pp.136-137
“Learnt from the drs of a Kentish Squire the last of whom died 1865 at an advanced age”.
A baker’s peel is an instrument used for putting bread in the oven.
Sent by Lucy Grahame to Lucy Broadwood, April 1904
Lucy Broadwood MSS Collection LEB/5/180/1, LEB/5/180/2, Journal of the Folk-Song Society 1 (1904) p.265
Roud 54, Child 84
“Learnt from Kentish squire’s daughters (last died vy old in 1865)”
Sent by Lucy Grahame to Lucy Broadwood, April 1904
Lucy Broadwood MSS Collection LEB/5/178/1, LEB/5/178/2, Journal of the Folk-Song Society 2 (1905) pp.113-114
“Learnt from Kentish squire’s daughters, the last of whom died at great age in 1865”.
Mrs Grahame wrote:
This is all of the “Yarmouth Ditty” which I have ever heard. There is, I believe, a good deal more of it, but I have no idea what kind of tragic ending there may be!
Reportedly sung by George Mount, Cheriton.
‘The Shop Walker’ was a comic song composed by George Le Brunn with lyrics by Walter de Frece, published by Charles Sheard & Co in 1891 or 1892. In 1903 the song entered the repertoire of the well known music hall performer Dan Leno, and was described on the cover of subsequent sheet music printings as “Sung with greatest possible success by Dan Leno”, and his “celebrated pantomime patter song” – see https://www.vandaimages.com/2009CR8416-Song-sheet-cover-featuring-Dan-Leno-in-Walter-de.html.
According to Wikipedia
“The Shopwalker” was full of comic one-liners and was heavily influenced by pantomime. Leno played the part of a shop assistant, again of manic demeanour, enticing imaginary clientele into the shop before launching into a frantic selling technique sung in verse.[1]
Leno recorded the song on a disc issued by The Gramophone Co. Ltd. In July 1903, and it was subsequently taken up by other performers including Harry Bluff and Sandy Powell- and, no doubt, by many amateur performers around the country.1
Reportedly sung by George Mount, Cheriton.
Folkestone, Hythe, Sandgate & Cheriton Herald, 8th September 1923
The cuckoo is a pretty bird,
She sings as she flies;
She brings us good tidings,
And tells us no lies.
She sucks little birds’ eggs
To make her voice clear;
She never sings ‘Cuckoo,’
Till summer is near.
Widely collected by the early twentieth century folk song collectors. Cecil Sharp, for example, found numerous versions, in Somerset, Gloucestershire, Warwickshire – and in the Appalachian mountains of the USA. The song was included in English Folk-Songs for Schools collected and arranged by Sabine Baring Gould and Cecil Sharp, published by J. Curwen & Sons Ltd., 1906, so it is entirely possible that George Mount’s grandchildren would have sung it in school. We have no information on George’s version beyond the verse quoted above, nor where he had learned the song.
Reportedly sung by George Mount, Cheriton.
This song is known by various titles, including ‘Green Grow the Rushes, O’, ‘The Twelve Apostles’, ‘The Dilly Song’, and ‘The Ten Commandments’. Collectors such as Sharp and Baring-Gould found the song in England and North America, and a version from Dorset was included in Lucy Broadwood’s English County Songs (1893). She gave a set of words as printed in the Eton College Rifle Volunteer Corps’ publication Camp choruses, and the song continues to be included in Scout campfire song books today.
See Lucy Broadwood and J.A. Fuller Maitland, English County Songs, pp154-159, https://archive.org/details/englishcountyson00broa/page/154/mode/2up
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