No. 57. Sweet Lovely Joan
The only variant of this that I know of is printed in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume i, p. 270) and harmonized by Dr. R. Vaughan Williams in Folk Songs from Sussex (No. 14). As the singer could give me but five stanzas, I have had to complete his song from a broadside in my possession (no imprint). The tune, which is remarkable for the irregularity of its rhythm, is in the Æolian mode.
No. 58. My Boy Willie
A Yorkshire version of the words is given by Halliwell in his Popular Rhymes (p. 328); and a Scottish variant in Herd’s Scottish Songs (volume ii, p. 1). See also Baring-Gould’s A Book of Nursery Songs and Rhymes (No. 24).
The song, I imagine, is a comic derivative, or burlesque, of “Lord Rendal.”
No. 59. Whistle, Daughter, Whistle
I have taken down two variants of this song, and Joyce prints an Irish version under the heading “Cheer up, cheer up. Daughter,” in his Ancient Irish Music (No. 26).
The words given me by the singer were a little too free and unconventional to be published without emendation, but the necessary alterations have, nevertheless, been very few and unimportant. The tune is in the Æolian mode.
No. 60. Mowing the Barley
For other versions, see Wiltshire Folk Songs and Carols (Rev. G. Hill); Butterworth’s Folk Songs from Sussex (No. 4); and Folk Songs from Various Counties (No. 4).
No. 61. I’m Seventeen come Sunday
This ballad, with words re-written by Burns, is in The Scots Musical Museum (ed. 1792, No. 397). The tune there given, which is different from ours, is a traditional one, and was recorded by Burns himself from a singer in Nithsdale. Other versions are printed in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume i, p. 92; volume ii, pp. 9 and 269); Songs of the West (No. 73, 2d ed.); and Ford’s Vagabond Songs and Ballads (p. 99).
The words, which are on broadsides by Bebbington (Manchester) and Such, have not been altered. The tune is in the Dorian mode.
No. 62. The Lark in the Morn
For other versions with tunes, see Folk Songs from the Eastern Counties (No. 6); A Garland of Country Song (No. 27); Traditional Tunes (p. 145); and the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume ii, p. 272).
No. 63. Hares on the Mountains
This is a very popular song in the West of England, but it has not, I believe, been found elsewhere. Similar words are in Sam Lover’s Rory O’More (p. 101), which Mr. Hermann Löhr has set to music. There is also a tune in the Petrie Collection (No. 821), called “If all the young maidens be blackbirds and thrushes,” in the same metre as the lines in Rory O’More. Probably the song is of folk-origin and was known to Sam Lover, who placed it in the mouth of one of the characters in his novel, adding himself, presumably, the last stanza.
No. 64. O Sally, my dear
This, of course, is clearly allied to the preceding song. I have collected only two other versions of it. The words of the first three stanzas had, of necessity, to be somewhat altered. The tune is in the Æolian mode.
No. 65. Gently, Johnny, my Jingalo
I have taken down only one other variant of this. The words were rather coarse, but I have, I think, managed to re-write the first and third lines of each verse without sacrificing the character of the original song. The singer told me he learned it from his father. I have no doubt but that it is a genuine folksong. The tune is partly Mixolydian.
No. 66. The Keys of Canterbury
For other versions with tunes, see the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume ii, p. 85); English County Songs (p. 32); Songs of the West (No, 22,
