Down In Yon Meadows- Thomas Hepple (Northumb) 1857
[From "The Water Is Wide" The History Of A "Folksong" by Jurgen Kloss. His notes follow. The title and first line do not match indicating an error. Kirkwhelpington is a village and civil parish in the English county of Northumberland about 13 miles northeast of Hexham.
R. Matteson 2017]
In 1855 the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne "appointed a committee 'to protect and preserve the ancient melodies of Northumberland." Two years later the Duke of Northumberland offered prizes for the two best collections of "ancient Northumbrian music". Thomas Hepple, a "local singer" from Kirkwhelpington, sent in his manuscript of 24 songs, in his own words "some old ballads I have had off by ear since boyhood" (Lloyd, Foreword to Bruce/Stokoe, pp. vi & xi; Rutherford 1964, pp. 270-2). His text – with six of the nine original verses - is very close to the printed versions and one may assume that he or his source had learned the song from a broadside or chapbook (online available at FARNE). The tune is clearly related to the one published in the Scots Musical Museum:
"Down In Yon Meadows", tune and text from Thomas Hepple; Manuscript, ca.1857
Down in a meadow fresh & gay
Plucking flowers the other day,
Plucking flowers both red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.
Where love is planted there it grows,
It buds & blossoms like any rose,
Such a sweet and pleasant smell,
All flowers on earth can it excel.
There thousands thousands all in a room,
My love she carries the highest bloom,
Surely she must be some chosen one,
I will have her or, I will have none.
I put my hand into a bush,
Thinking the sweetest rose to find,
But I prick'd my finger to the bone,
I left the sweetest rose behind.
I spy'd a ship sailing on the sea
Laden as deep as she could be,
But not deep as in love I am,
I care not whether she sink or swim.
Must I be bound and she go free
Must I love one that loves not me;
Why should I act such a childish part
To love a girl that should break my heart.