The Suffolk Miracle- Sands (NC) 1916 Sharp A
[The title, The Suffolk Miracle is not local and another title should be given perhaps, "The Handerchief," since the first verse is also generic. From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians- I; 1917 and 1932; Sharp and Campbell edited Karpeles. This comes from Madison Co. where many ballads were recovered- See also Sharp, Version C. Here's an article from Madison County Tourism Development Authority:
Sharp was driven into Madison County in July of 1916. One of the areas in the Laurel Country was a very remote section known then as Allanstand (the name Allanstand based on the fact that it was on a pack-horse route where the animals could ‘stand’ overnight, probably at a lodging originally owned or run by a person called Allen). One of the younger residents, Berzilla Chandler Wallin remembers that the people were nervous at first because they thought that he was surveying for a site for a new dam and they might lose their land. Their feelings softened and within four days Sharp had collected over fifty songs and had doubled this figure within seventeen days. In fact, Ziporah Rice, an aunt of Berzilla’s (known to all as “Aunt Zip”) was one of those who sang for Sharp.
Sharp spent four weeks in Madison County and we know from his diary that he was often driven around by Mitchell Wallin, Lee’s uncle, who played the fiddle for Sharp. According to Sharp’s diary, Mitchell Wallin was “a bad singer and a very difficult fiddler to note from” but Wallin is remembered by those in the area as a good fiddler. Mitchell’s half-sister, Mary Bullman Sands, sang 25 “love songs” (as ballads were called). Although Sharp was looking for songs, he also collected instrumental music. Reuben Hensley, father of thirteen year old Emma Hensley who gave Sharp a good version of the ballad Barbara Allen, played Sharp such tunes as Cumberland Gap. His travels in the county were published in a small booklet entitled Ballad Hunting in the Appalachians which included four letters he wrote during that summer. Sharp kept a diary and took photographs during his travels.
Cecil Sharp also went to Hot Springs, where he collected 70 songs from a single woman–Jane Hicks Gentry–the most he had collected from a single person. When Sharp’s English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians was published in 1932, it included forty songs given by Jane Gentry and additional songs from Madison County ballad singers whose family names are known today for their songs and tunes: the Wallins, Chandlers, Nortons, Rays, Sheltons and Ramseys. When he finally moved on to another area, Cecil Sharp had collected songs from thirty nine Madison County singers. Almost all of the Laurel area singers were descendants of Roderick Shelton. Indeed, of the “thirty nine Madison County singers that sang to Sharp, no less than twenty eight were related to this person.” In all, Cecil Sharp collected a total of 260 tunes in Madison County, NC. 158 of these were collected in one small area, comprising the settlements of White Rock, Alleghany, Allenstand, Carmen, Big Laurel, Rice Cove and Spillcorn. The remaining 102 songs came from the small town of Hot Springs (these include the 70 songs which came from Jane Gentry).
R. Matteson 2013.]
Notes from English Folk Songs in the Southern Appalachians (1917 edition) to No. 31. The Suffolk Miracle.
Texts without tunes:—Child, No. 272.
Each of the three tunes, A, B and C, is a variant of the carol air, "Christmas now is drawing near at hand" ( see Journal of the Folk-Song Society, v., pp. 7—11).
THE SUFFOLK MIRACLE- Collected from Mrs. Mary Sands, NC, 1916; Sharp A;
1 Come all you people old and young
Pray don't do as I have done;
Pray let your children have their way
For fear that love breeds a decay.
2 When her old father came this to know
That she did love young Villian so,
He sent her off three hundred miles or more
And swore that back home she should come no more
3 This young man wept, this young man cried,
In about six months for love he died;
Although he had not been twelve months dead
Until he rode a white steed.
4 He rode up to his uncle's home
And for his true love he did call.
5 Here's your mother's coat and your father's steed
I've come for you in great speed.
And her old uncle, as he understood,
He hoped it might be for her good.
6 He jumped up, and her behind,
And they rode faster than the wind ;
And when he got near her father's gate
He did complain that his head did ache.
7 A handkerchief she pulled out
And around his head she tied it about,
And kissed his lips and thus did say:
My dear, you're colder than the clay.
8 Get down, get down, get down, says he,
Till I go put this steed away.
While she was knocking at the door
The sight of him she saw no more.
9 Get up, get up, get up, says he,
You're welcome home, dear child, says he,
You're welcome home, dear child, says he,
What trusty friend did come with thee ?
10 Dear old father, do you know-,
The one that I once loved before.
The old man knowing he had been twelve months dead
It made the hair rise on his head.
11 He summoned clerks and clergies too,
The grave was to open and him to view.
Although he had been twelve months dead
The handkerchief was around his head.
12 Come all of ye, both young and old,
Who love your children better than gold,
And always let them have their way
For fear that love might prey (?) decay.