The Gypsies and the Laddies- F. Shiflett (VA) 1962 Foss
[My title. From LC/AAFS, rec. No. 12,006(B24). Also Bronson 81. Also Foss and Abrahams; Anglo-American Folksong Style, 1968. Read Foss's From White Hall to Bacon Hollow here:
http://www.klein-shiflett.com/shifletfamily/HHI/GeorgeFoss/whall.html
The Shiflett name is also spelled, Shifflett, with 2 f's. According to Foss, there are numerous Shiflett-Shiflett marriages and numerous Shiflett-Morris marriages. The informant Florace Shiflett married Mack Shiflett. Some of Foss's intro follows.
This stems from one of the older version found in the Appalachians. Cf. David Morris's version (also collected by Foss) which is nearly the same (family version).
R. Matteson 2015]
From White Hall to Bacon Hollow is about a place and about its culture and people. I have granted myself the author's indulgence of selecting a title significant in its double meaning. White Hall to Bacon Hollow is a stretch of twisting country road, Virginia route 810, crossing the line between Albemarle and Greene Counties. Heading west from Charlottesville toward Staunton across the mountains in the valley of Virginia and the Shenandoah River, turn north through the small industrial town of Crozet past orchards of apples and peaches and fields of corn and rye to a small country store in the fork of the road which is White Hall. From there the road winds ever closer to the mountains northward some twenty miles to Bacon Hollow. This region is bounded on the west by the southernmost section of the Skyline Drive and nestles into the gaps and coves which reach up to the Shenandoah National Park line near the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
[The Gypsies and the Laddies] --Sung by Florence Shiflett, Wyatt's Mountain, near Dyke, Va., July 13, 1962. Collected by George Foss.
1. It was late in the night when the Captain came home,
Inquiring for his honey O,
The reply that was made unto him, my love,
She's gone with the gipsies and the laddies O.
2. Saddle up, saddle up my milk-white steed,
Saddle up, saddle up in a hurry O,
I will ride all night till the broad daylight,
Till I overtake my honey O.
3. He rode to the East and he rode to the West,
He rode till he came to Barreno.
And there he met with his pretty little Miss,
A-going with the gipsies and the laddies O.
4. Hey, come[1] and go along with me,
You never be lacking for money O.
I'll lock you up in a chamber so high,
Where the gipsies and the laddie won't come anigh.
5. I won't go back nor I shan't go back,
Nor I won't go back, my husband O.
I wouldn't give a kiss from the gipsy boy's lips,
For all your house and your money O.
6. Oh once you get used[2] to a good feather bed,
But now you get used to another one,
Now you get used to an old torn bed,
With the gipsies and the laddies all around you.
1. Bronson didn't get text here- from Foss
2. Bronson's original transcription had "produced [? were used]" I've changed to Foss's text throughout this stanza.