Bailiff's Daughter- Powell (KY) 1917 Sharp A
[From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians I, p. 219; Sharp & Campbell; 1932, Karpeles editor, see notes that follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
No. 30. The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington.
Texts without tunes :—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 105, A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 174. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxx. 321; xxxix. 106. British Ballads from Maine, p. 225.
Texts with tunes :—Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i. 125 and 209; vii. 34. Chappel's Popular Music of the Olden Times, i. 203. Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No, 41. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Bishop Percy's Reliques, p. 100. Sussex Songs, p. 10. Folk-Songs of England, v. 41. C. Sharp's English Folk Songs (Selected Edition), ii. 35. Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 383 and 585.
No. 30 The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington
A. The Bailiff's Daughter of Hazel Town. Sung by MRS. TALITHAH POWELL at Berea, Madison Co., Ky., May 28, 1917
Heptatonic. Ionian.
1. There was a youth and a comely youth,
And he was a squire's son;
He fell in love with a bailiff's daughter,
The bailiff of Hazel Town, Town,
The bailiff of Hazel Town.
2 It was about the middle of summer,[1]
The girls went out to play
The bailiff's daughter stayed at home,
And so cunningly she stole away.
3 And she pulled off her gown of green
And dressed in ragged attire,
And went to fair London town,
Her true love to enquire.
4 She met a stranger on the way,
O where do you reside?
In Hazel Town, kind sir, she said,
Where many a sport's been played.
5 One penny, one penny, kind sir, she said,
Will ease me of my pain.
6 Before I give you one penny, sweetheart,
Pray tell me where you were born.
In Hazel Town, kind sir, she said,
Where I have had many a scorn.
7 If you are from Hazel Town,
Surely I know you.
What has become of the bailiff's daughter?
She is dead, sir, long ago.
8 If she be dead, here take my horse,
My saddle and bridle also,
And I'll go to some far country
Where no man shall me know,
or
If she be dead and me yet alive,
All in this wilderness of woe,
Go bring to me my milk-white steed,
My fiddle and my bow.
9 O no, O no, thou goodly youth,
She's standing by thy side.
She is not dead, she is yet alive,
And ready to be thy bride.
1. The italicized stanzas are from a version in Professor Raine's collection which he believes was noted down from the same singer.