cleoma

I've been listening to various people's versions of Lost Girl lately (Salyer,
Melvin Wine, Walter McNew) -- these seem to have a common ancestor. Does
anyone know what that might be? A Scottish or Irish tune perhaps?
Beautiful tunes, all of them.
Suzy T.
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carl baron

Add the brilliant version of Emmett Lundy. Definitely related to the Salyer and
Wine versions.
Carl

gloux

Suzy,

I don't want to misrepresent this as being diligent research...it is the result
of minutes of mindless surfing:

Mudcat Cafe has this post:

Subject: Lyr Add: Sweet England (from Sharp & Baring-Gould)
From: masato sakurai - PM
Date: 21 Jun 03 - 10:29 PM

The Shirley Collins version comes from Sharp & Baring-Gould's English Folk
Songs for Schools (No. 22), which is as fololws:

SWEET ENGLAND

1. As I was a-walking one morning in spring,
To hear the larks whistle, the colley-bird sing,
I heard a fair maiden a-making her moan,
O alas! I'm a stranger away from my home.

2. O where is your country I gladly would know,
And what mean the tears, that so freely do flow?
What made you to wander so far from your home,
And causes lament in a strange land alone?

3. I came from sweet England, with mother and dad;
They thought in America all might be had,
Of gold and of silver and acres galore,
And never need hunger in poverty more.

4. But alas, for sweet England! my father is dead,
My mother could earn but a dollar for bread,
And alack! the white wings of the ships as they fly
Across the ble sea, and leave me here to die!

5. Now mother is dead, I am left all alone;
If I were in England no more would I roam.
I've an aunt who is grey, and she loves me amain,
Oh, will not some ship take me homeward again?

6. She has got a neat cottage, a rose at her door,
Her pans and her dishes I'd scrub, and her floor,
I'd kiss her old cheeks, and I'd nurse her in pain,
And thank God I was back in sweet England again.

Info from folktrax:
HAPPY STRANGER, THE - "As I was a-walking one morning in Spring" - "birds
whistle and nightingales sing"- Courtship - ROUD#272 - Bs by John FORD of
Chesterfield 1830s (Palmer Reprint 2001) "HS" - GREIG-DUNCAN 4 1990 #831 p245 -
JOYCE AMOI 1873 p73 - JOYCE OIFMS 1909 p200 Co Limerick - GARDINER FSFH 1909
"The HS" - SHARP-MARSON FSS 2 pp42-3 Robert Dibble, Bridgwater, Somerset "Sweet
Europe" - BARING GOULD-SHARP Schools "Sweet England" - SHARP-KARPELES CSC 1974
#389 p575 Robert Dibble "Sweet Europe" - WILLIAMS #246 Frank Cook, Burford,
Oxfordsh (w/o) "Far from home" --- McGILL Ky p51 - SHARP FSSA 1917 2 #157 p212
"The Rebel Soldier or The Poor Stranger" Mrs Eliza Pace, Hyden, Leslie Co., Ky
1917/ Mrs Lawson Grey, Montvale, Va 1918 (Version B publ in FSEO 2nd ser)/ Mr
Bridges, St Peters Mission, Franklin Co., Va 1918/ Joe Blackett, Meadows of
Dan, Patrick Co., Va 1918 "The Poor Soldier"/ Miss Sally Jones, St Peters
School, Franklin Co., Va 1918/ Miss Abby Moseley, Berea College, Madison Co.,
Ky 1917/ Mrs Margaret Dunagan, St Helens, Lee Co., Ky 1917 - COX FSOS 1925
pp346-7 W M Jarvis Ms, WVa (w/o) - RANDOLPH OFS 1946 1 pp270-2 Mrs Grace
Etchison, Ark 1929 "Two Strangers in the mountains alone"/ Charles Ingenthron,
Mo 1941 "The Lost Girl" -- see EVENING WALK - I AM A POOR STRANGER - Cf BONNY
UDNY - INDIAN LASS -- Shirley COLLINS with John HASTED (banjo), Ralph RINZLER
(gtr), Guy Carawan (gtr) rec by PK 1958 (ARGO): SEE FOR MILES SEE-212 1987
"Sweet England" - Jo FREYA SAYDISC SDL-402 (CD) 1993 "Sweet England"
~Masato

End of Mudcat posting

Also, the notes to The Lost Girl in Titon's book include a mention that:

"The tune was played at the 1919 and 1920 Berea fiddle contests by H.F. Green
and by Anderson Bowling."

This interestingly could tie to the above reference (that I copied and pasted
below) to:

Miss Abby Moseley, Berea College, Madison Co., Ky 1917

Is this the sort of thing you're looking for?

-Greg

cleoma

Wow! That is fascinating. Thanks so much for digging it up. Yes -- the tune
is so melodic, I figured it probably had some previous existence as a song.
Suzy
To reply to this posting, remove "nojunk" from my email address. Visit Suzy on
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