British & other versions 3. Bramble Briar
[Until recently[1], the first English version of Bramble Briar was thought to be "In Bruton Town" collected by Cecil Sharp from Mrs. Overd in 1904. In 1906 "In Strawberry Town" was collected from Whitcombe[2] in Sussex by Sharp and "A Famous Farmer" was collected from Digweed[3] in Hants by H. E. Hammond. In 1907 two variants of "A Famous Farmer" were collected by Gardiner[4] and in 1908 he collected a similar fragment "There was a Farmer." In 1911 Alice Elizabeth Gillington collected the first Traveller's version "Brake o' Briars"[5] which she published attached to a different song in "Songs from the Open Road." Since then three other Travellers versions have surfaced the most complete sung by Caroline Hughes[6] which was recorded by MacColl in 1963 and again by Kennedy in 1968. It's curious that the ballad was still being sung and was recorded in 2012 by Traveller Freda Black[7]. Freda's recording may be heard online at SongCollectors.org.
Three important versions followed Gillington's: "It's of a Farmer" collected in 1913 by Ralph Vaughan Williams, "Lord Burling's Sister" sung by Joiner in Herts in 1914 and collected by Broadwood and "The Farmer's Daughter" taken from Richard Gardner of Oxfordshire in 1915, and collected by another Williams-- Alfred Williams (no relation). "Lord Burling's Sister" is a full version that doesn't have "farmer" in the opening, while the Richard Gardner version has "brake of briars" in it. Aside from the Travellers' versions only two traditional versions have been collected in the last hundred years in England. They are: It's of a Rich and Gay Old Farmer sung by Henry Mitchell in Hants (1938) and The Brake of Briars recorded by Lemmy Brazil of Gloucester in 1967. To summarize, it's apparent that The Bramble Briar is rare in England, not found in Scotland or Ireland, and only had a brief tradition from 1904 until 1920 except for, perhaps, in the Travellers' communities.
The location of the farmer and his sons, daughter and servant is often given as Bridgewater or properly Bridgwater, which possibly refers to the Bridgwater that's a market town in Somerset[8]. It should be noted that all the versions were found in England or southern England and than so far none have been found in Scotland or Ireland. Other titles similar to US versions but using different town names include "In Bruton Town or "In Strawberry Town." The most popular English title is "There was a farmer," or "It's of a Farmer" or "A famous Farmer" or derivatives thereof. The curious appearance of a farmer in the ballad whose sons ironically "plough the ocean" may be a result of borrowing from a broadside with a similar plot, "The Constant Farmer's Son." The broadside of "Constant Farmer" is dated circa 1830 by Belden[9] who says, "The natural inference is that The Constant Farmer's Son is a working over of The Bramble Briar by some hack for the ballad press." The relationship was also commented on by Frank Purslow who wrote a note on a page attached to Gardiner's "A Female Farmer":
"A Famous Farmer" and its corrupted version "A female farmer" are other names for "Bruton Town" which dates from the early 18th century at least, but is probably much older. The Constant Farmer's Son is a 19th century re-write of the older song in a different metre.[10]
Nearly all the recent English versions of The Bramble Briar have "farmer" in the opening lines. Since The Constant Farmer's Son was printed as a broadside circa 1830 and collected by Broadwood as early as 1893[11] it's reasonable to assume by the early 1900s the word, "farmer," somehow replaced "merchant" in English versions of the Bramble Briar. Broadwood suggested in 1905[12] that it should be "father" rather than "farmer" since Hans Sachs used "father" rather than "merchant" in his German verse in the sixteenth century.
Perhaps the most important version was recently discovered in "Tales About Christmas" by Peter Parley (AKA Samuel Griswold Goodrich) which was published in London in 1838[13]. I've titled it "Near Tunbridge Waters" after the opening. It's curious to note that "Near Tunbridge Waters" is very close to "Near Bridgewater," an opening line found in versions of the Bramble Briar both in England and the US. Since the Parley book was published in 1838 and it takes years to publish most books, it can be ascribed a date of early 1800s which nearly 100 years earlier than "In Bruton Town," which was collected in 1904. I give the short except from "Tales About Christmas," Chapter 18 in it's entirety:
A bricklayer, judging by his appearance, then entertained the company with the long ballad of "Lord Bateman's Daughter:" though he had by no means a good voice, yet you might have heard a pin drop on the floor while he was singing; and yet I question if equal attention was not given to a labourer, in a smock frock, who was the next singer.
He began his ditty with a twang, singing somewhat through his nose; but that did not signify, for the narrative contained in his ballad was full of interest. It began thus,
"Near Tunbridge waters a man there lived,"
and went on to say that the man had two sons and a daughter, whom he loved very dearly.
"A servant man with them there lived;
A servant man as you shall hear,
And this young lady did him admire,
And they loved each other dear."
It seems that the brothers of the young lady were highly offended, for, after some time,
"A hunting match there was provided
To take this young man's sweet life away."
This cruel plan succeeded too well, for the two brothers fell upon the servant man, in a lonely place, and killed him; thus the young lady was deprived of her lover, and thus the hard hearted brothers rid themselves of the servant man.
"Near Tunbridge waters a brook there runneth;
With thorns and briers it is overgrown,
And, all for to hide their cruel murder,
In that brook he was killed and thrown."[14]
My best guess for the location of this fragment is Redhill Grange, north of Wellingborough, in the county of Northamptonshire, which Parley mentioned earlier in the book several times. The specific location of the "public house" is not given in the book. Parley says:
"In public houses, and pot houses by the way side, at times, there are strange ditties to be heard. Having occasion to call on the landlord of a house of this description, I could see, through the glass door of the little parlour where I sat, a group of country people sitting with their mugs before them. . ."[15]
It's significant to note that a farmer is not mentioned in this version and that the location is "Tunbridge waters." According to Gardham[16] the ballad he titles, The Bridgewater Merchant is derived from a missing English broadside that he dates circa 1750. This missing broadside is closer to the more complete US versions than the English ones[17]. To create a "A Reconstructed Broadside Ballad" Gardham primarily used "The Bridgewater Merchant" a version found with the Douglass MS that was supplied by his great-aunt who died in 1850 and was published in "A Pioneer Songster[18]." I've dated the MS circa 1820 and the other full early American MS version which came from New Jersey to Ohio and then to Michigan, I've dated circa 1850[19]. From the American versions collected in Appalachian and the versions from the New York area it seems the ballad arrived in America by the late 1700s[20]. A date of circa 1750 for the missing English broadside seems reasonable.
Some of the identifying phrases found in the Bramble Briar are the same in England and America. "Killed and thrown," for example, is the same; as is "His tears were salt as any brine" or "bosom friend of mine". Others, like "a brake of briars" found consistently in the Travellers versions, do no appear in the US. Usually it's "a ditch of briars," only once as "patch of briars" and frequently appears as "a bramble of briars" or its derivative, "a bamboo of briars."
As establish by the 1838 version the briars are located near a brook:
"Near Tunbridge waters a brook there runneth;
With thorns and briers it is overgrown,
And, all for to hide their cruel murder,
In that brook he was killed and thrown." [sung by a labourer, in a smock; Parley 1838]
"Brook" appears similarly "in Bruton Town" the 1904 Overd version:
She rose early the very next morning,
Unto the garden brook she went;
There she found her own dear jewel
Covered all over in a gore of bled.
Also it is found "In Bruton Town" as sung by Mrs Baggs of Chedington, Dorset, in August, 1907 which has:
She woke up early, so early next morning,
And went to the brook where the briars grew;
While in other English versions it's a brook or creek that's dried up:
It was near the creek where there was no water,
Nothing but bushes and briars grew.
All for to hide their cruel slaughter
Into the bushes his body threw. ["A Famous Farmer;" Dilweed 1906]
9 But in the ditch there was no water,
Where only bush and briars grew,
They could not hide the blood of slaughter
So in the ditch his body threw. [Lord Burling's Sister- Joiner (Herts) 1914]
A brook does not appear in the US versions. In the English versions a handkerchief is used to wipe the dead lover's eyes as if he could see:
She took her handkerchief out of her pocket
For to wipe his eyes for he could not see;[Overd 1904]
However in the US versions his cheeks are dyed red with blood and her eyes are salt as brine or his lips are as salt as brine. There is no handkerchief. Missing from the English versions is the brothers drowning at sea but the brothers still have to pay for their crime. They are sentenced, tried and hung:
Then these two brothers was taken and tried
For the dreadful murder they had done
They both was tried and brought in guilty
And for the same they both was hung.[Henry Mitchell, 1938]
According to Gardham the English versions "preserve remnants of 17 of the 23 reconstructed[21] stanzas. The best preserved version is that of Mrs. Joiner which preserves 6 full stanzas close to the reconstruction despite losing 4 stanzas at the beginning. The best preserved stanza is the 16th of the reconstruction which is the description of his body and her kissing him. In general the English versions mainly preserve the middle block of stanzas 10 to 17 from the brothers' return to her lamenting over the body. Those English versions that have an ending telling of the brothers' punishment tell of them being tried and hung and there is no mention of them being drowned at sea in a storm. The English versions generally have their own autonomy and if pushed I'd say there was probably a shorter printed version following the original with a few alterations such as condensing the opening and changing the ending.[22]"
A number of questions remain about the ballad in British Isles and specifically England since the ballad has not be traced to Scotland or Ireland. If the ballad was created by a stall printer based on a translation of Boccaccio's "Isabella and the Pot of Basil" why has a print version not surfaced? Why then is the end of Boccaccio's story not found in the ballad? Or is Boccacio's work just an Italian analogue of an older archetype? Except for the the fragment captured by Parley in the early 1800s, why has there been no other trace of the ballad in England until 1904? Why are some of the early American versions longer and fuller than the English ones?
Steve Gardham is hopeful that the missing broadside will someday surface. Until then the answer to these questions might not be known.
R. Matteson 2016]
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Footnotes:
1. The short version found in "Tales About Christmas" by Peter Parley (AKA Samuel Griswold Goodrich) which was published in London in 1838, was posted on the Mudcat Discussion Forum in 2016.
2. George Whitcombe's version was noted by Cecil J. Sharp at Westay, Meare, Somerset on Jan. 15th and 19th, 1906, and published in Narrative Ballads by Lucy E. Broadwood, A. G. Gilchrist, Cecil J. Sharp, Clive Carey and Frank Kidson; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 5, No. 19 (Jun., 1915), pp. 122-148.
3. George Digweed, of Micheldever, Hampshire sang his full version which was collected by H.E.D. Hammond in March, 1906.
4. "A Female Farmer," a corruption of "A Famous Farmer," was collected as sung by Mrs. Randall of Preston Candover, Hampshire in October 1907 and Daniel Wigg of Preston Candover by Abresford Hants, in July 1907. Collectors were G.B. Gardiner and Charles Gamblin.
5. Alice E. Gillington included the ballad in Songs of the Open Road, pp. 10 as a New Forest Gypsies Ballad. However, the first part is a different song, "The Brisk Young Country Lady." The second half of the ballad (The Brake o' Briars) was sung by Miss Edith Sebbage, Trotton, Sussex in 1911.
6. Caroline Hughes (1900 - 1971) was a Traveller whose version came from the 1963 and 1966 recordings made by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker released on Sheep-Crook and Black Dog (MTCD365-6). She was also recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1968.
7. Freda Black, who is about eighty-five and was born a Traveller in a Somerset field near Chew Magna.
Listen-- http://songcollectors.org/tradition-bearers/freda-black/
8. Only a few versions, for example, the Caroline Hughes version, are spelled Bridgwater without an e.
9. From "Boccaccio, Hans Sachs, and the Bramble Briar" by H. M. Belden in PMLA, Vol. 33, No. 3 (1918), pp. 327-395.
10. According to Steve Gardham, Purslow's writing was from the 1970s when he was editing a volume of Gardiner's work. The early date given by Purslow of "18th century at least, but is probably much older" was the current thinking at that time, which has changed in the last 40 years.
11. "The Merchant's Daughter," a version of "Constant Farmer's Son," was collected by Broadwood from the singing of Mr. Henry Burstow in 1893.
12. The quote by Lucy Broadwood was made in 1905 in the JFSS attached to Overd's 'Bruton Town': "The word 'farmer' in the first verse printed above should no doubt be 'father,' he being thus mentioned in Sachs's poem."
13. The excerpt is found on pages 147 and 148 of "Tales About Christmas" by Peter Parley, 1938; London.
14. The identifier in the last stanza, "killed and thrown," is found in many versions. The "thorns and briers" is similar to many versions, the order and rhyme scheme however, is unique.
15. The Bridgewater Merchant" is an article with several appendices by Steve Gardham; Dungheap No. 21: http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/dung21.htm
16. Ibid
17. Gardham says, "In general the English versions mainly preserve the middle block of stanzas 10 to 17 from the brothers' return to her lamenting over the body. [Mudcat Discussion Forum, 2016]. For example, "In Bruton Town" by Overd is only 7 stanza while the full version, A Famous Farmer" by Digweed in 1907 is 13 stanzas. By comparison the NY version "The Bridgewater Merchant" is 22 stanzas.
18. A Pioneer Songster by Harold Thompson and Edith Cutting, p.63; 1958.
19. As quoted from Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan by Gardner and Chickering; 1939: "Mr. Charles Lambertson, Belding, has a composition book in which his mother, Mrs. Elsie Clark Lambertson, wrote the songs she knew and liked She was born in Seneca County, Ohio, in 1838 of Holland-Dutch parents and moved to Michigan in 1860 Her husband, Edward Lambertson, was born in Ohio of parents of English and Scotch descent, who had moved from New Jersey to Ohio. Many of Mrs. Lambertson's songs were learned in Ohio in her youth. Mr. John and Mr. Charles Lambertson remembered hearing their mother sing most of the songs which she had written in the notebook."
20. At best this is an estimation based on the genealogy of the families from whom the songs were collected. For example, at least 5 versions have been collected from the Hicks/Harmon/Presnell families who settled in the Beech Mountain area before the Revolutionary War and at least two of them were learned it from their grandfather, Council Harmon (1806-1890) of Watauga County, NC. Some of the Hicks/Harmon ballads date back to Council's grandfather, "Big Sammy" Hicks, who came from Virginia to the NC mountains in the late 1700s. It is speculation whether that ballad was brought from Virginia or learned in the mountains at a later date.
21. The "reconstructed broadside" version is found in an Appendix to his Dunghep No. 21 article. It's made up primarily of the longer US versions. Here is Gardham's reconstruction:
1. 'Twas near Bridgewater a rich man lived
Who had two sons and a daughter fair;
Of life by death they were bereaved,
Which filled these children's hearts with care.
2. 'Twas o'er the seas their sons did venture
For to bring home their rightful gain;
They had an apprentice by firm indenture;
They sent him factor o'er the main.
3. This young man was of a fair complexion,
Straight and complete in every limb;
Their sister placed her whole affection
On this young man, and courted him.
4. Three thousand pounds it was her portion;
She was a fair and a comely dame;
On this young man that crossed the ocean
She was resolved to bestow the same.
5. By chance one day her younger brother
Happened to see them sport and play;
The secret told he to the other;
These very words to him did say."
6. “Of parents mean he has descended,
And thinks our sister for to have;
But their courtship shall soon be ended;
We'll send him headlong to the grave.”
7. Now to contrive this cruel matter
They did conclude it should be so;
That this young man they both would flatter,
With them a hunting for to go.
8. In a small wood not much frequented,
Where harmless lambs did sport and play;
These villains could not be contented,
His precious life must take away.
9. In a (dry) ditch where there was no water,
Where thorns and briars had overgrown;
There for to hide their bloody slaughter,
There this young man was killed and thrown.
10. Then they returned to their sister,
Who asked, “Where is your servant man?
I ask because you seem to whisper,
Dear brothers, tell me if you can.”
11. "We lost him in our game of hunting
And nothing more of him could see;
To tell you plain I am affronted,
That you do thus examine me."
12. That very night as she lay sleeping
This young man he came and stood;
By her bedside he stood a weeping,
All covered o'er in gore of blood.
13. “It is in vain,” says he, “my jewel,
For you to murmur and repine;
You brothers killed me, being so cruel;
In such a place you may me find.”
14. “If you rise early in the morning,
And over lofty mountains wind,
Go straightway to yon brake of briars,
And in the ditch my body find.”
15. Next morning to the woods retired,
With many a sigh and a bitter groan,
And there she found whom she admired,
In that same place was killed and thrown.
16. Although his lips with blood were dyed,
Her tears as salt as any brine,
She ofttimes kissed him and cried,
“Alas! Thou bosom friend of mine.”
17. “And since my brothers have been so cruel
To take your precious life away,
One grave shall serve for both, my jewel,
While I have breath I will by thee stay.”
18. Three days and nights there she was weeping,
All down upon her bended knees,
Until fierce hunger came a creeping,
She uttered forth such words as these.
19. “Although for you my love is tender,
Yet I shall be obliged to yield,
Or unto death I must surrender;
Oh, like one conquered I'll quit the field.”
20. Then to her brothers she soon retired.
As soon as ever they did her see,
With blushes they of her inquired,
“What makes you blush so mournfully?”
21. “Oh! my brothers, thou knowest the reason;
That makes your sister look so wan
Against the law you have acted treason
By killing of your servant man.”
22. Then to conceal their shame and sorrow
These villains did on shipboard go;
But oh, believe me, on the morrow,
The bitter storms and winds did blow.
23. The wind it blew, it was no wonder,
And tost among the crashing waves,
Then by the flood they were dragged under,
The roaring sea proved both their graves.
22. Posted on Mudcat Discussion Forum on May 7, 1916. ]
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CONTENTS: (To access individual versions click on the blue highlighted title below or on the title attached to this page on the left hand column-- see green border)
1) Near Tunbridge Waters- (Northants) 1838 Goodrich
2) In Bruton Town- Overd (So) 1904 Sharp
3) In Strawberry Town- Whitcombe (So) 1906 Sharp
4) A Famous Farmer- Digweed (Hants) 1906 Hammond
5) In Bruton Town- Baggs (Dor) 1907 Hammond
6) A Female Farmer- Randall (Hants) 1907 Gardiner
7) A Female Farmer- Daniel Wigg (Hants) 1907 Gardiner
8) There Was A Farmer- Cole (Hants) c.1908 Gardiner
9) The Brake o' Briars- Sebbage (Sx) 1911 Gillington
10) It's of a Farmer-- (Herts) 1913 R. V. Williams
Lord Burling's Sister- Joiner (Herts) 1914 Broadwood
Farmer's Daughter- Gardner (Oxon) 1915 Alfred Williams
A Match of Hunting- Ridley (Kent) c.1925 MacColl
It's of a Rich and a Gay Old Farmer- Henry Mitchell (Hants) 1938 Bonham-Carter
Bridgwater Farmer- Hughes (Dorset) c.1962 MacColl
The Brake of Briars- Lemmy Brazil (Glos) 1967 REC
There Were a Farmer- Freda Black (So) 2012 REC
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Alice Elizabeth Gillington was born in 1863, the second child of John Maurice Gillington (b. 1823) and Sarah Dumville Gillington, nee Thorpe (b. 1837). Her father, a clerk in holy orders, had been born in Dublin and her mother was from Huyton in Lancashire. Alice was born in Audlem, Cheshire, as were her elder sister, Mary Clarissa (b. 1861), and two younger brothers, George William (b. 1864) and John Louis (b. 1865). By 1871, John Maurice had moved his family to Riding Hill, Bisley, Surrey. He was then employed as chaplain to Brookwood asylum, a few miles to the south of Bisley. Also living at their home was Sarah's sister, Agnes May Thorpe (b. 1847, in Manchester), an 'annuitant', and Ruth Daborn, a nineteen-year-old servant who had been born in Chobham, Surrey. The four children, then aged ten, eight, seven, and six, were described in the 1871 census as 'scholars'. Presumably, being the daughters of a cleric, the girls would have been taught such 'feminine' subjects as poetry, painting, and music.
Twenty years later Alice and her sister, now Mrs Mary Clarissa Byron of Streatham in south London, had become published poets whose work appeared in a number of late Victorian collections, such as Edmund Clarence Stedman's A Victorian Anthology 1837-1895 (Cambridge, 1895).
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The Antiquary, Volume 41; 1905
"Although Mr. Sharp confesses that collecting folk-songs nowadays is very like 'dissecting a corpse,' the corpse shows signs now and then of being a remarkably lively one. Fragments of no fewer than five hundred folk-songs, familiar and otherwise, fill Mr. Sharp's note-books, and his latest tour has resulted in the discovery of, at any rate, one whole ballad that has never been heard before.
"It is exceedingly beautiful, both in its tune and the simple, naive pathos of its words. It possesses the added interest of telling almost exactly the same story as that used so famously by Boccaccio, and afterwards by Keats—the story of Isabella and her Pot of Basil.
"This song begins ' In Bruton town there lived a farmer,' and tells how the farmer's daughter and one of the farm servants loved each other. The two brothers murdered the servant, and buried him 'where no man can find.1
"The daughter, however, dreamed of what had been done. She saw her lover standing by her.
Then she rose early the very next morning,
Unto the yonder brook she sped;
There she beheld her own dear jewel
In gory plight, all bloody red.
And since my brothers have been so cruel
To take your tender, sweet life away,
One grave shall hold us both together,
And along with you in death I'll stay.
"Such was the song, sung to Mr. Sharp one fine day in Langport, to a tune that Mr. Sharp avers must be at least 300 years old, by an old Somerset woman named Mrs. Overd, who needed to be refreshed at intervals by a 'moog ov zyder'!
" 'She was a fine old lady in many ways,' Mr. Sharp said. 'Here's my beau at last,' she said, when I first made my appearance at the cottage door. She sang me, in all, some forty-five traditional Somerset songs."
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Frank Purslow:
"A Famous Farmer" and its corrupted version "A female farmer" are other names for "Bruton Town" which dates from the early 18th century at least, but is probably much older. The Constant Farmer's Son is a 19th century re-write of the older song in a different metre.
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