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Volume I Part 44 (2/2)

The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Alice Bertha Gomme 76160K 2022-07-22

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30.

31.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

No.

Wales.

Isle of Wight.

Isle of Man.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

Green gravel.

Yellow gravel.

The gra.s.s is so green.

Fairest damsel ever

I've seen.

Fairest young lady

ever seen.

10.

11.

12.

Fine pencil as ever

was seen.

13.

14.

[Wash you in b.u.t.ter-

milk, dress in silk.]

(After No. 26.)

15.

16.

[Write name with my

gold pen and ink.]

(After No. 26.)

17.

18.

True love is dead.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

He's sent letter to

I send you letter to

He sent this letter to

turn head.

turn round your head.

turn my head.

24.

25.

26.

Mother, is it true?

What shall I do?

27.

28.

29.

30.

31.

32.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

No.

Madeley.

Oxfords.h.i.+re.

Sheffield.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

Green gravel.

Round the green

gravel.

Fairest young lady

ever seen.

All pretty fair maids

are fit to be seen.

10.

Flowers all faded,

none to be seen.

11.

12.

13.

14.

Wash them in milk,

clothe in silk.

15.

16.

17.

Write names with pen

and black ink.

18.

Sweetheart is dead.

True love is dead.

(After No. 25.)

19.

20.

Betsy kissing her

young man.

21.

Choose the fairest

daughter.

22.

23.

I've sent letter to

[He sent letter to

turn your head.

turn back your head.]

(After No. 25.)

24.

25.

She showed her ring

Married to-day so kiss

and bells did ring.

one another.

26.

27.

28.

[Wallflowers verses

follow.]

29.

Poor widow left alone,

and choose the fairest

daughter.

30.

31.

32.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+----------------------+

+---+----------------------+----------------------+

No.

Forest of Dean.

Wakefield.

+---+----------------------+----------------------+

Round the green

Around the green

gravel.

gravill.

All fine ladies ever

were seen.

10.

11.

All fine ladies

ashamed to be seen.

12.

13.

14.

Washed in milk,

Wash 'em in milk,

dressed in silk.

dress in silk.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

Last to stoop down

We'll all cow down

shall be married.

together.

23.

24.

25.

He came to inquire,

They shall be married

down she came, so off

with gold ring.

with glove and on with

ring, to-morrow the

wedding begins.

26.

27.

28.

29.

30.

[Dancing, cuddling,

asking to marry.]

31.

[Furnis.h.i.+ng.]

32.

[If a boy, he's to

have a hat; if a girl,

a ring.]

+---+----------------------+----------------------+

(_e_) Other versions, actually or practically identical with the Redhill (Surrey) version, have been sent by Miss Blair (South s.h.i.+elds); Mr. H.

S. May, Ogbourne and Manton (Wilts); Mrs. Haddon (Cambridge); Mrs.

Harley (Lancas.h.i.+re); and Miss Burne, Platt, near Wrotham (Kent). There are also similar printed versions in _Folk-lore Journal_, vi. 214 (Dorsets.h.i.+re); _Folk-lore Record_, v. 84 (Hersham, Surrey). Northall prints a version in his _Folk Rhymes_, 362-3, identical with No. 17. The tune of the Platt version sent by Miss Burne, and the Ogbourne and Manton (H. S. May), are almost identical, except the termination. This seems to be the most general tune for the game. The Lancas.h.i.+re tune is the same as the London version.

Miss Burne says of the Madeley version: ”I never knew 'Green Gravel' and 'Wallflowers' played together as in this way elsewhere (I had not got this variant when I wrote _Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-lore_), except at Much Wenlock, where they reverse the two verses, and only sing _one line_ (the last) of 'Green Gravel.' But I feel sure they must have been _meant_ to go together (see my note in _Shrops.h.i.+re Folk-lore_, p. 510), and I can explain them, I think. The ring of girls are dancing on the green gra.s.s plot in the middle of an old-fas.h.i.+oned sixteenth-century walled garden: each gets the news of her lover's death, and 'turns her face to the wall,' the old token of hopeless sorrow. Then they apostrophise the wallflowers in the border surrounding the gra.s.s plot against the old high wall; and here another variant explains the lament (second line)-

Wallflowers, wallflowers, growing up so high, _We shall all be maidens_ [and so], we shall all die;

Except the youngest (who will meet with another lover), whether as an instance of the proverbial luck of the 'youngest born,' or as a piece of juvenile giddiness and inconstancy, I cannot say; but considering the value set on true love and hopeless constancy in the ballad-lore, and the special garland which distinguished the funerals of bereaved but constant maidens, and the solemnity of betrothal in old days, the latter seems probable, especially considering the 'for shame.'”

The incidents of _was.h.i.+ng_ a corpse in milk and _dressing_ it in silk occur in ”Burd Ellen,” Jamieson's _Ballads_, p. 125.

”Tak up, tak up my bonny young son, Gar _wash_ him wi' the _milk_; Tak up, tak up my fair lady, Gar row her in the _silk_.”

Green Grow the Leaves (1)

[Music]

-Earls Heaton (Mr. Hardy).

I. Green grow the leaves (or grows the ivy) round the old oak tree, Green grow the leaves round the old oak tree, Green grow the leaves round the old oak tree, As we go marching on.

Bless my life I hardly knew you, Bless my life I hardly knew you, Bless my life I hardly knew you, As we go marching on.

-Lincolns.h.i.+re and Nottinghams.h.i.+re (Miss Peac.o.c.k).

II. Green grow the leaves on the old oak tree, I love the boys and the boys love me, As we go marching on.

-Sharleston (Miss Fowler).

III. I love the boys and the boys love me, I love the boys and the boys love me, I love the boys and the boys love me, As we go marching home.

Glory, glory, hallelujah!

As we go marching home.

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