British and Other Versions: 8C. On a Mountain Stands a Lady Roud 2603; "There Stands a Lady" (Sharp); "There Stands a Lady on the Mountain;" "Yonder Stands a Lovely Lady;" "There She Stands a Lovely Creature;" "Lady on the Mountain"(Opie); "Lady on Yonder Hill;"
[The fundamental stanza of children's game songs used in 8C. On a Mountain Stands a Lady (Roud 2603) is derived from the text of two stanzas of 8. Madam, I Have Come To Court You. This opening stanza appears in a variety of ways but usually:
There stands a lady on the mountain,
Who she is I do not know:
Oh! she wants such gold and silver!
Oh! she wants such a nice young man! [Gomme A, 1894]
The modern versions[1] often reverse first line of the text:
On a mountain stands a lady,
Who she is I do not know;
All she wants is gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young man[2]. [South London 1974]
The image of a lady on a "mountain" or "hillside" makes the stanza easily identified. The source of "mountain" is unknown and only one reference is given to it in the related "Madam" songs (see: The Dumb Lady-- 1672). It's derived from the first two lines of the opening stanza of "Madam[3]":
Yonder sits[stands] a lovely creature,
Who is she? I do not know,
I'll go court her for her features,
Whether her answer be "Ay" or "no."
The two lines are combined with a two-line variation of the last "gold and silver" stanza of "Madam" (the woman's response)[4]:
What care I for gold and silver,
What care I for house and land
What care I for rings and jewels,
If I had but a handsome man."
In this stanza the 1st and 4th lines make up the last two lines of the opening of the children's game song while a "handsome man" becomes a "nice young man" and the young lady once who eschewed "gold and silver" for a "handsome man" now wants "gold and silver." When these changes took place is unknown but since versions were collected in the 1880s the change likely took place by the mid-1800s.
The standard text of Madam was sung by children in 1846 as a nursery rhyme, my A. It was collected by Halliwell and does not have the standard game-song form found in C-G. The text of 8C's A and B are remnants of Madam with B versions having ring-game instructions. The logical conclusion would be that the nursery rhymes and ring games of A and B, predate C-G which were adapted from them. This evolution has not been verified and only two hybrid first stanzas[5] have been found (one from Australia) which have the "On the Mountain" opening with the "Madam" closing line "whether she answers Yes or No."
C is represented by children's game songs with the standard "Here stands a lady on the mountain" opening. One early version of C was collected in Berrington by Charlotte Burne and published in Shropshire Folk-Lore II ( p. 509) in 1885. Burne calls it "another version of Sally Water(Walters)" since the other parts are similar to or taken from Sally Water. She also says, "See the ballad of the Disdainful Lady," a version of Madam published in the same edition. In the notes for "Disdainful Lady" she says, "the first stanza slightly resembles a game-rhyme given ante (p. 509), and one in Folio Lore Journal, Vol. I. p. 387." Here's Burne's version:
Chorus. 'Here stands a lady on a mountain,
Who she is I do not know;
AU as she wants is gold and silver,
All as she wants is a nice young man.
Choose you east, and choose you west.
Choose you the one as you love best.
(She chooses, and chorus continues,)
Now Sally's got married we wish her good joy,
First a girl and then a boy;
Twelve months a'ter a son and da'ter,
Pray young couple, kiss together.
The text of stanzas of C not found in versions of "Madam" are taken from other children's songs current at the time of collection. Burne mentions "Sally Water." Some other children's songs/games with a lines similar to "Choose you east" and the "kissing stanza" are "King William," "Here Stands a Young Man," "Tug of War" and the aforementioned "Sally Water." Cf. the version in Gillington's "Old Hampshire Singing Games."
Two versions of D, children's songs where children reenact roles similar to those of the early wooing plays, were published by Gomme in 1894. Titled "Lady on Yonder Hill" they feature the character of the wooed lady who feigns death and is resurrected. In the folk plays Alan Brody points out that the "combat leads to the death and resurrection of one of the figures, after which the wooing resumes." The death of one of the wooers is found in both "Lady on Yonder Hill" and some of the "Quack Doctor" folk plays. The first version, Da, was taken by Gomme from an article, Children's Games, collected from Suffolk children by Miss Nina Layard of Ipswich and published in Suffolk Folk-lore, Issue 37, Part 2 as edited by Lady Eveline Camilla Gurdon, 1893. Gurdon gives the game instructions along with the sung text:
VIII.
Make a Ring.
All join hands, enclosing a boy and girl, the boy standing a distance from the girl. The boy is called a gentleman, and the girl a lady.
Gentleman: "There stands a lady on yonder hill,
Who she is I cannot tell;
I'll go and court her for her beauty
Whether she answers me yes or no.
Madam I bow vounce to thee.
Lady: 'Sir, have I done thee any harm?'
Gentleman: 'Coxconian.'
Lady: 'Coxconian is not my name, 'tis Hers and Kers and Willis and Cave.'
Gentleman: 'Stab me Ha! Ha! little I fear,
over the waters there are but nine,
I'll meet you a man alive.
Over the waters there are but ten,
I'll meet you there five thousand.'
Then the gentleman pretends to stab the lady, and she falls on the ground. Then he walks round the lady and sings:
'Rise up, rise up, my pretty fair maid,
You're only in a trance;
Rise up, rise up, my pretty fair maid,
And we will have a dance.'
Then he lifts up the lady and the game is finished.
The inclusion of elements of the wooing plays suggests the possibility that the "There stands a Lady" stanza evolved from a wooing play in the early to mid-1800s. However, no wooing play has been collected which gives the "There stands a Lady" opening. The two "gold and silver" stanzas found similarly in Madam were collected in wooing plays of the 1900s but were surely present in the 1800s[6]. The argument that text of the children's songs resembles text of the wooing plays is tenuous at best.
In 1906 Cecil J. Sharp collected a version of E from John Barnett of Bridgwater, Somerset. This ring game variant (designated Ea) combines "Lady on a mountain" with a chorus, "Madam will you walk" associated with another courting song, "Keys of Heaven (Keys of Canterbury)[7]":
Madam will you walk
Madam will you talk
Madam will you walk and talk with me.
In 1909 Gillington published a version of E, "There Stands a Lady" (Keys of Heaven)," in her "Old Surrey Singing Games and Skipping Rope Rhymes." The most popular version of "There Stands a Lady (Keys of Heaven)" was collected from girls at Littleport Town Girls' School by Cecil Sharp on 8 September, 1911 at Littleport, Cambridgeshire. Sharp's elaborate version was widely reprinted and seems to be the source for a number of reprints including "There Stands a Lady." published by Norman Douglas in "London Street Games" (1st edition, 1916) pp. 85-87 and the popular "There Stands a Lady" from the TV sitcom series "Liver Birds" set in Liverpool that aired from 1969 to 1979. Here is the text of the 1912 version (slightly expanded from the MS) which was published by Sharp and Gomme for Novello and Company:
"There Stands a Lady" Circle Game
All the players join hands in a ring except one, A, who stands in the centre. They then sing and act as follows:—
The players dance round in the ring and sing these lines. A says “No” very decidedly. The players then stand still and sing the last two lines. A again says " No.”
1 There I stands a lady on the mountain,
Who she is I do not know;
All she wants is gold and silver.
All she wants is a nice young man.
Madam will you walk? Madam will you talk?
Madam will you marry me? No!
Not if I buy you a nice arm chair
To sit in your garden when you take the air? No!
2 There I stands a lady on the mountain.
Who she is I do not know;
All she wants is gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young man.
Madam will you walk? Madam will you talk?
Madam will you marry me? No
Not if I buy you a silver spoon
To I feed your baby every afternoon? No
3 There stands a lady on the mountain,
Who she is I do not know;
All she wants is gold and silver.
All she wants is a nice young man.
[As in first stanza, except that on the second interrogation A says “Yes.” A then chooses a partner from the ring, B.]
Madam will you walk? Madam will you talk?
Madam will you marry me! No!
Not if I buy you a nice straw hat,
With three yards of ribbon a-hanging down your back? Yes
[A and B, arm in arm, walk out from the ring under the raised arms of two of the players. B puts a ring on A’s finger,]
4 Go to church, love,
Go to church, love, farewell.
5 Put the ring on,
Put the ring on, farewell.
6 Say your prayers, love, [A and B kneel down]
Say your prayers, love, farewell.
7 Back from church, love, [A and B, arm in arm, walk back into the centre of the ring,]
Back from church, love, fare-well.
8 What’s for breakfast, love, [Sung by A and B.]
What’s for breakfast, love, fare-well'?
9 Bread and butter and watercress, [Sung by the ring]
Bread and butter and watercress,
Bread and butter and watercress,
And you shall have some.
10 Bread and butter and beetles, [Sung by the ring],
Bread and butter and beetles,
Bread and butter and beetles,
And you shall have some.
12 What’s for tea, love, [Music as for sung by A and B],
What’s for tea, love, farewell?
13 Bread and butter and rats, [Sung by the ring]
Bread and butter and rats,
Bread and butter and rats,
And you shall have some.
After a cover version was featured on the TV sitcom series "Liver Birds" in the early 1970s, the song was revived. In a rootsweb London archive post Joanna Coventry said:
At the beginning of the 1970s only a few lines of this game-song seem to have been remembered; but in 1975-6 versions such as the above were collected in quick succession from 9 year olds in Salford, from an 8 year old at Wool in Dorset and from 10 year olds in Oxford
. The words are virtually those of the game, "There stands a lady," published by Cecil Sharp in 1912 and
most of the children had learnt the song from a young man with a guitar on the TV schools programme Music Time. . . This extended version belongs to the period 1920-25; but the first four lines have been continuously popular in the skipping rope, as well as forming the basis of a simple ring game first noted in 1913.
* * * *
By the mid-1900s the short ring game songs had become popular skipping songs also called, "jump-rope songs," with a new variation of the first line (also is the title)-- "On the Mountain Stands a Lady." These songs, my F, were popular throughout the UK and in the US and Canada as well. The standard rope jumping version begins:
On the mountain stands a lady,
Who she is I do not know,
All she wants is gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young man. [Lucy Stewart Aberdeenshire, 1960] [8]
After this a new child is asked to come in (called by name) to jump rope and one of the participating jumpers is asked to leave (called to leave).
Come in my dear [name],
Go out my dear [name].
The invitation ("come in" or "calling in") of another player who replaces the old player in the center of the ring or rope is the most common version known in the last fifty years and many children from the 1950s up to today have learned this basic version. That these later game songs were widely popular in the UK was corroborated by a tabulation by the Opies[9] in 1997 who noted the "On the Mountain" game song "from sixty-five places since 1950."
Additional stanzas have been added to the skipping texts of F. My G has extra stanzas similar to the additional stanzas of C found in other children's game (Sally Water/Walker) of the late 1800s. In this version[10] from South London in 1974 these additional lines are added:
So go to your__, dear,
And make it Mrs___
How many kisses did he give you?
One, two, three. . .
Will you marry him?
Yes, no, yes. . .
How many babies will you have?
One, two, three. . .
Do you love him?
Yes, no, yes. . .
The way the additional lines of the game were enacted were described by schoolgirls from Huish Episcopi, Somerset in a recording[11]: A girl is skipping in the middle while the girls sing "Will you marry him?" When they sing "Yes, no yes, no. . ." the rope stops swinging and if they were singing "yes" when it stopped-- that is the answer for the girl in the middle-- "Yes" she will marry him. The other questions are answered similarly.
* * * *
Ian Turner collected a number of versions in Australia (see: Cinderella Dressed in Yella, New York, 1972). Here's one reprinted in The Bulletin of Sydney (December, 1998) that has the second verse in the third person:
Here stands a lovely creature,
Who she is I do not know.
Will she answer for her beauty,
Will she answer Yes or No.
No, she won't have gold and silver
No, she won't have house or land
No, she won't have ships on the ocean.
All she wants is a nice young man.
This version and another collected in 1952 in England by the Opies have the familiar "Madam" first stanza which is the older form of the children's song.
* * * *
The appearance of these children's songs based on text of "Madam" can only be traced to the 1870s with the "There stands a Lady on the Mountain" stanza dating to the early 1880s. Whether the new "There stands a Lady on the Mountain" stanza is derived from the wooing folk plays is unknown, but at least two versions suggest the possibility[12]. The children's songs can't be traced to the mid-1700s broadsides of "Madam" and have an assumed origination date no earlier than the mid-1800s. The earliest appearance of the more modern "On a Mountain Stands a Lady" first line is 1914 where it appears without attribution in John Hornby's "The Joyous Book of Singing Games," published in New York. The "On a Mountain Stands a Lady" versions associated with skipping rope are products of the early 1900s which became popular by the mid-1900s.
In this cursory study no attempt has been made to secure every available version and a number of known versions, available in books which I do not have access, are not given.
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. Although hardly "modern" in the strict sense, these versions appeared in Britain in after World War II. The first published version was Horby's in 1914 by a NY publisher.
2. This is the standard modern stanza found in the 1950s and on skipping games. One variation is "On the hillside."
3. This is from earliest extant version of "Madam," titled "The Lovely Creature" ("Yonder sits a Lovely Creature") which was printed at Aldermary Churchyard by one of the Dicey/Marshall dynasty and is dated about 1760.
4. The early print versions (c. 1760s) have "gold and treasure" but many subsequent versions have "gold and silver." The plough plays also have "gold and silver."
5. See Opie 1952 and Turner 1976.
6. See, for example, the version from Kentucky dated 1930 but recreated from informants who learned it in the late 1800s.
7. Although some admixture is found in "Madam" and Keys," there are clearly different ballads and should not be lumped.
8. This is standard with slight variation throughout the UK, Canada, US and Australia.
9. See: "Children's games with things: marbles, fivestones, throwing and Catching, Gambling, Hopscotch, Chucking and Pitching, Ball-Bouncing, Skipping, Tops and Tipcat" by Iona Archibald Opie, Peter Opie - 1997.
10. See: The Lore of the Playground: One hundred years of children's games, by Steve Roud - 2010.
11. From: Opie collection of children's games & songs C898-76-02. The children perform the singing game 'On a Hillside Stands a Lady' (a variation of 'On a Mountain Stands a Lady') [00:00:58 - 00:01:59] http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Opie-collection-of-children-s-games-and-songs-/021M-C0898X0077XX-0100V0
12. Two hybrid versions are the 1952 "folk" version collected by the Opies and a version collected by Ian Turner from The Bulletin of Sydney (12.3.98).
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CONTENTS: (Individual versions may be accessed by clicking on the highlighted title below or by clicking on the title attached to this page on the left hand column)
1) Madam, I Am Come to Court You- (Lon) Halliwell 1846
2) Yonder Stands a Lovely Lady- (Derb) 1883 R.C. Hope
3) Here Stands a Lady- (Shrop) 1885 Burne
Stands a Lady on the Mountain- (Sus) 1892 Husk
Lady on Yonder Hill- children (Suf) 1893 Layard
There's a Lady on the Mountain- (Suf) 1893 Layard
Lady On The Mountain- children (Berk) 1893 Thoyts
There Stands a Lady- children (Sur) 1894 Gomme A
There Lives a Lady- children (Essex) 1894 Frances
There Stands a Lady- children (Kent) 1894 Kimball
Lady on the Ocean- children (Lon) 1894 Chase
There Stands a Lady- children (Rutland) 1896 Finch
There Stands a Lady on the Mountain (Dor)1897 Udal
There Stands a Lady- (Cam) 1898 Haddon
Lady on the Mountain- children(Sus) 1905 Gilchrist
There Stands A Lady(Keys)- Barnett(Som) 1906 Sharp
Here Stands A Lady- Kinnaird (Nort) 1906 Williams
There's a Lady Over Yonder- Brown(Aber)1907 Duncan
There Stands a Lady (Keys)- 1909 (Sur) Gillington
There Stands a Lady- (Lon) 1916 Douglas
Lady on the Mountain- F. Bamber (Lanc) c.1916
On The Mountain Stands a Lady- Joan (Liv) c.1945
On the Mountain- girls (Lon) c.1948 Mudcat
On the Mountain- children (Edin) 1950 Film
On the Corner Stands a Lady- (Hamp) c.1950 Roud A
Upon a Hill Stands a Lady- (Linc) 1952 Opie A
On a Mountain Stands a Lady- (Edin) 1954 Henderson
On a Mountain- Stewart (Aber) 1960 Goldstein
On a Mountain Stands a Lady- Elliot (Dur) 1962 REC
On the Mountain Stands a Lady- (Edin) 1965 Ritchie
On the Mountain Stands a Lady- (Lon) 1971 Opie B
Here Stands a Lovely Creature- (AU) 1972 Ian Turner
On the Mountain Stands a Castle- (SC) 1974 Opie C
On a Mountain Stands a Lady- (S. Lon) 1974 Roud B
There's a Lady On the Mountain- (Nor) 1975 Opie D
On a Hillside Stands a Lady- (Som) 1978 Opie
On the Hillside- girls (Belfast) 2000 Mudcat
Went Downtown- Children (Belfast) 2003 Lanclos
On the Mountain- Jean (SW Scot) 2004
On the Mountain- Wilma M (Falkirk) 2004
On a Hillside Stands a Lady- (Down) 2006 Newry
On a Mountain- Paddy (Liv) 2008
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Random Notes:
Children's games with things: marbles, fivestones, throwing and Catching, Gambling, Hopscotch, Chucking and Pitching, Ball-Bouncing, Skipping, Tops and Tipcat by Iona Archibald Opie, Peter Opie - 1997
The distinctive tune became familiar to viewers of light comedy when it was adopted as the theme music for the BBC television series about Merseyside The Liver Birds. Britain: London, 1910. Leeds, c. 1925 from sixty-five place3s since 1950
Northumberland, c. 1935
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Ian Turner, Cinderella Dressed in Yella, New York, 1972. [1969]
Turner[4] quotes from The Bulletin of Sydney (12.3.98). Here the second verse is in the third person:
Here stands a lovely creature,
Who she is I do not know.
Will she answer for her Beauty,
Will she answer Yes or No.
No, she won't have gold and silver
No, she won't have house or land
No, she won't have ships on the ocean.
All she wants is a nice young man.
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The Lore of the Playground: One hundred years of children's games, ...
https://books.google.com/books?isbn=1407089323
Steve Roud - 2010 - Preview - More editions
FORFAR, Q1950 Being a relative newcomer to the stable of children's games, it was natural for skipping to acquire some rhymes from older forms of entertainment. On a Mountain Stands a lady is an example of a rhyme that was formerly found in a ring game concerned with courtship; it received a healthy new lease of life when adapted for skipping. In the first version it is a calling-in rhyme, but in other versions it takes on teh standard 'how many kisses" style:
So go to your__ dear,
And make it Mrs___
How many kisses did he give you?
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At Play in Belfast: Children's Folklore and Identities in Northern Ireland
By Donna M. Lanclos [Miz Brown]
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Notes and Queries March 12, 1982
Shipley, Horsham (Gomme IV)
2.
Stands a lady on the mountain,
Who she is I do not know ;
All she wants is gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young beau.
Take her by the lily-white hand,
Lead her across the water,
Give her kisses, one, two, three,
For she is her mother's daughter.
The sense, the rhythm, and the rhyme have
obviously got considerably corrupted in both these
specimens; but I give them exactly in the form.
children use and are amused by them.
Miss R. H. BUSK.