BirthME, Doulas

The same can be said about the variant of "Young Hunting" he refers to (Karpeles, Appalachians, No.

27, 1923, pp. 99, p. 205) have published a version in their collections as have for example also Cecil Sharp (No.

(repeat twice in parts with one part higher than the other and then sing in round with group two beginning to sing at the word 'Nor')

32: Robert Walker of Norwich (mustrad article J. Collingwood Bruce & John Stokoe, Northumbrian Minstrelsy.

The imagery of the lyrics describes the challenges of love: "Love is handsome, love is kind" during the novel honeymoon phase of any relationship. For example it  became a refrain in a "simple ditty with a pleasant air" called "Love It Is Easing" that was noted by British collector Alfred Williams  in In Scotland Greig and Duncan have noted a fragment with only one verse that could be a relic of this song (Greig-Duncan VI, No.1166, p. 252):Other more complete versions were collected by H. E. D. Hammond in Somerset in 1905 ("Love It Is Pleasing", You false-hearted young men you know you have deceived me,Some time in the 1940s Jean Ritchie learned a little song from an "Irish girl" (Ritchie, p. 24):She regarded this song as an "enchanting version of 'Waly, Waly'" but in fact it looks more like a fragment of "Love It Is Easin'/Pleasin'/Teasin'" as collected in Britain by Williams, Hammond and Gardiner. "Prince Cobourg's Lamentation For The Loss Of Princess Charlotte" (There are some more extant  copies of this song but they were published a little bit later. Of course it is also possible that the writers of both pieces have borrowed these verses from another undocumented older song. They regularly recycled verses for "new" texts.

They had compiled their songs from verses borrowed from different sources and claimed it was "new" while Sharp did exactly the same thing but preferred to regard his work as an "old" song.
Interestingly five of the seven additional stanzas from Ramsay's text can also be found in other songs.
For example he – who was a gifted songwriter himself - introduced a consistent rhyme scheme: in all verses it is One version (text A) was sent to him by Miss Octavia L. Hoare, a correspondent from Cornwall. The maid's complaint for Jockey, Printed by M. Randall, Stirling [The crafty farmer : To which are added, The unfortunate swain. The rhyme scheme is inconsistent.

Variants of the second verse - "Come all ye fair maids, now take a warnin [...]'" - are of course also known from the American song "Fair And Tender Ladies".

2. 2, 1788, Vol. As already noted an early form of this particular verse can be found in another related older song, "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, or: Love in Despair" (available at In 1905 Folklore collector H. E. D. Hammond noted a song from Jacob Baker in Dorset (Broadwood et al. Willie is the Lad for me, [Newcastle upon Tyne?, 1780?] 1650, ESTC But "Oh Waly, Waly" also shares four verses with "Arthur's Seat Shall Be My Bed, or: Love in Despair". The unfortunate swain. 35 B, p. 172"Waly, Waly (The Water Is Wide)", sung by Mrs. Elizabeth Mogg, Somerset, 1904, collected by Cecil Sharp, from Karpeles, Sharp Collection, No. This song was first printed in 1725/6 in two groundbreaking publications. In fact both were only half right.

Most interesting are the two stanzas that were apparently borrowed from "Oh Waly, Waly": the third with "I lean'd my back against an oak" and the sixth with "love is handsome and love is pretty". In some verses it's The second one (text F) with only three badly remembered verses was recorded from William Nichols,Whitchurch, Devon, whose "grandmother sang it to him in 1825":On the British broadside sheet this song  is combined with "The Green Willow" that includes another variant form of this verse:That's the version of the first verse we know today.

But this variation can't be found in any other extant copy of the shorter version of the song. The first with nine verses and a chorus can be found for example on a song-sheet printed by John Pitts in London (This is a song of somehow dubious quality, in fact it looks more like a random selection of verses without much inner coherence.

1780, ESTC Interestingly the first verse here is clearly a variant form of the third in "Oh Waly, Waly" ("O waly, waly, but love be bonnie […]") but this particular version did not survive. The same phrase can be found in the American "Peggy Gordon". Variants of this verse were occasionally used in other songs but none of them predates the broadsides with "I'm Often Drunk" that was apparently first printed around 1820.Already in the 1820s and early 1830s  a song called "Peggy Gordon" was published on American song-sheets: in New York and in Boston (available at the libraries of Here we find three verses known from the longer version of "I'm Often Drunk" including the one starting with "the seas are deep, and I cannot wade them [...]".

Tune and words collected by C. J.