Ferry Hinksey Town- George Hicks (Glou) 1916 A. Williams
[From: Vaughan Williams Memorial Library and WSRO: 2598/36 Packet 2 - Gloucestershire: Williams, A: MS collection No Gl 44. Also Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard, 3rd June, 1916, p 3, Part 32, No. 4. Williams MS notes follow. Verses 3 and 9 are later additions to the text, one in the original ink, one in the red ink Williams used for his editorial notes.
See also: http://history.wiltshire.gov.uk/community/getfolk.php?id=105
Williams Ms / WGS notes: 'Again I have to refer to having obtained a song in two localities of the Vale. The first part of this was told to me by an old woman near Bampton, the second by George Hicks of Arlington, above mentioned [Shepherd come home to thy breakfast]. The song had its origin near Oxford according to references to the river, and to Ferry Hinksey Town'.'
R. Matteson 2016]
Ferry Hinksey Town- sung by George Hicks of Arlington, Gloucestershire and an old woman. Collected by Alfred Williams, published 3rd June, 1916.
1. I fell in love with a pretty girl,
With a black and a rolling eye;
I told her that I loved her,
And that most tenderly.
2. I promised for to marry her,
Upon a certain day;
But instead of that I was resolved,
To take her life away.
3. He went unto her uncle's house,
At ten o'clock at night;
And little did that poor girl think,
He owed her any spite.
4. "Come, take a walk along with me,
Across the meadows gay;
There we will walk, and chat and talk,
And fix our wedding day."
5. He drew a stake out of the hedge,
And beat her to the ground;
The blood from that young innocent,
Came trickling slowly down.
6. Down on her bended knees she fell,
And aloud for mercy cried -
"Pray, Jimmy dear, don't murder me,
For I am not fit to die."
7. He took hold her curly locks,
And dragged her along the green;
Until he came to some river wide,
And there he threw her in.
8. She floated high, she floated low,
She floated there I spied;
"Instead of being a corpse, my love,
You should have been my bride."
9. When he went home, late at night,
No rest could he find;
Thinking of that pretty girl,
He'd killed and left behind.
10. And in a few days after,
Her body it was found;
A-floating down the river,
By Ferry Hinksey Town.
11. They took me up on suspicion,
My trial for to take,
The murdering of my own true love,
All by that cruel stake.
12. The judges and the jury men,
They all did agree;
For murdering of my own true love,
It's hanged I must be.