Gipsies' Laddie-O: McAllister (VA) 1958 Clayton
[My title. From: LC/AAFS, recording No. 11,866(A1). Recorded by Paul C. Worthington [Paul Clayton]. Also collected by Foss in 1961- his first stanza added in brackets below.
A large number of Child 200 versions have been collected from the "Brown's Cove" (Albemarle County) Virginia area. Collectors from that area include Scarborough, Davis (and members of Virginia Folklore Society) Wilkinson and later George Foss, Abrahams and Clayton.
For more info and interviews with McAllister read Foss's From White Hall to Bacon Hollow: http://www.klein-shiflett.com/shifletfamily/HHI/GeorgeFoss/whall.html
R. Matteson 2015]
"Gipsies' Laddie- O" Sung by Mrs. Mary Bird McAllister, Brown's Cove on June 17, 1958.
[Yes sir, the gypsies in the North,[1]
They've bound unto sweet Bosley-O;
They'll sing to you such a beautiful song,
It'll charm the heart of a lady-O]
1. Twas late in the night when the Captain came home
Inquiring for his honey O.
The servant miss replied to him,
She's gone with the gipsies' laddie O.
2. Saddle up, saddle up my milk-white steed,
Saddle up, saddle up in a hurry O.
I'll 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,
And he rode unto sweet Bosly 0,
And there he spied his own true love
A-going with the gipsies' laddie O.
4. Come back, come back, my own true love,
Come back, come back, my honey O,
I'll lock you up in the chamber so high
The gipsies can't come a-nigh you.
5. I won't come back nor I shan't come back,
And I won't come back, my husband O.
I'd rather have a kiss from the gipsy's lips
Than all of your land and your money- O.
6. O how can you leave your house and land
And how can you leave your husband O?
And how can you leave your sweet little babes
To go with the gipsies' laddie O?
7. O I can leave my house and land
And I can leave my husband O
And I can leave my sweet little babes
To go with the gipsies' laddie O.
8 She hadn't been a trav'ling but a very short while
Before she spent all of her money- O;
She spent the gold rings off of her finger,
I he breast pins off of her bosom- O.
9. It was once she was used to a good feather bed
And also had her parlors- O
But now she's come to a bed of hay.
The gipsies lay[2] all around her.
1. Foss has an additional first stanza
2.Clayton had "they"