A Brisk Young Sailor- Thomas (William) Colcombe (Herefordshire) Jekyll, September 1906
[From Lucy Broadwood Manuscript Collection (LEB/5/224). Text and tune also in Ella Mary Leather's MS-- suggesting an independent collection and s collaboration with Jekyll who wrote the tune in 1906. Text is corrected from published/online text by Leather's MS. According to several sources all of Jekyll's Herefordshire songs were collected from the same singer, William Colcombe, at the Weobley Workhouse. Confusingly, he is initially called Thomas Colcombe in the Notebook (also in Leather's MS) and in the early volumes of JFSS.
Leather's MS has "Sung by Hirons in 1903 (could be 1907)." It's possible that only the first stanza is from Colcombe. Leather's title was "There is an Alehouse." See link at bottom of this page to her MS.
R. Matteson 2017]
A Brisk Young Sailor- Words from Thomas (William) Colcombe, Weobley, Herefords, noted F. W. Jekyll, Sep. 1906 (Lucy Broadwood MSS collection) Text from Ella Mary Leather's MS, there are some fairly significant changes from Broadwood's transcription-- one is footnoted. Last stanza found in Oxfordshire Tragedy from Broadwood only.
1. Oh, a brisk young sailor courted me,
And stole away my liberty.
He stole my heart and a free good will,
He has it now and he keeps it still.
2. Down in a meadow as I did run,
To pick the flowers as they sprung,
At every sort I gave a pull
Until I pluck my apron full.
3. And as I carried my apron low,
My true love followed through frost and snow.
But now his smile I can not win[1],
He’ll pass me by and say nothing.
4. Yonder is an alehouse in yon town,
He’ll take a seat and sit himself down.
He’ll take a strange girl on his knee,
And don’t you think that’s grief to me!
5. O how grieved I am, how grieved I am,
That she has gold and I have none:
But gold will waste and beauty blast,
This poor girl she’ll come like me at last.
6. There is a rogue on yonder hill,
He has a heart as hard as steel.
He has two hearts instead of one,
And he’ll be a rogue when I am gone.
7. Now I'll gather the green grass for my bed,
And a flowery pillow for my head,
And the leaves that fall from tree to tree,
Shall be a covering over me.
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1. original text from Broadwood "But now my gown can scarcely pin" which is hard to read in Leather's MS: http://www.vwml.org/search/search-roud-indexes?roudredirect=1&ts=1483799531998&collectionfilter=HHA;SBG;LEB;JHB;GB;COL;CC;DCD;GG;AGG;PG;HAM;MK;FK;EML;MN;TFO;CJS1;CJS2;FSBW;RVW1;RVW2;AW&qtext=Alehouse&precision=1#