Bluegrass Messengers

Collins Brush: The Dew Flies that Over the Mulberry Tree; c. 1800

Taken from: Three Folk-Ballads and Tunes from Scarce Printed Sources
by A. G. Gilchrist
Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 8, No. 33 (Dec., 1929), pp. 146-152

18.-COLLINS BRUSH: THE DEW THAT FLIES OVER THE MULBERRY TREE
[THE THREE SISTERS, OR THE LADY IN THE WEST.]
FROM F. KIDSON'S MS. No. 34, c. 1800.



The "Three Sisters" tune printed by Davies Gilbert in the second edition of his Christmas Carols (it is not in the first, I822) as one of " Two Ancient Ballads " has hitherto appeared to be the first printed copy of this air. The ballad, with a Northumbrian tune and a different refrain, is in Miss Mason's Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs, I877 (and reprinted in English County Songs, p. 6, " There was a lady in the west "). This is probably the tune given in Stokoe's Northumbrian Minstrelsy, i882, which, however, I have not seen. Davies Gilbert's tune is used in Baring-Gould's Garland of Country Songs. The version above printed I found in an old fiddler's MS. tune-book. From internal evidence most of the tunes must have been transcribed very early in the nineteenth century, but a portion may have been written down at an earlier date. The queer title " Collins Brush " is derived from an actor named Collins, who gave an entertainment " The Evening Brush " from I775 to I793. "The Dew that flies over the Mulberry Tree " seems to have been one of his songs-which would take this copy of the tune back into the eighteenth century.
The same tune, in a rather different form, is also used for "The Outlandish Knight." See Journal, Vol. vii, p. 74, for a Lancashire variant sung to " The Cruel Ship's Carpenter." [See below- Gilchrist uses the same melody as above]

Six versions of this very old riddle-song are given by Child. All the versions I have seen have a double refrain-the north-country ones of

Lay the bent to the bonny broom
Fa lang the dillo, dillo, dee.

     the south-country ones of

Jennifer, gentle, and rosemary,
As the dew flies over the mulberry tree.

"Dew" is generally supposed to mean " doo " dove. See Miss Broadwood's note under " The Seaside, or the Elfin Knight," Journal, Vol. iii, pp. I4-I6. for protective magic signified by the herbs occurring in such refrains, which frequently occur in contests of wits between human and demoniac beings.-A. G. G.

Later in 1946 Gilchrist writes: (Journal, 1946, p. I7.)

Miss A. G. Gilchrist writes:-" Since I wrote my note on the 'Cruel Ship's Carpenter' tune (Mrs. Bowker's variant) I re-discovered a variant in Frank Kidson's ' MSS. 34 ' in my possession under the curious title of 'Collin's Brush: The Dew that flies over the Mulberry Tree.' The Dew is probably Doo (Dove). As for' Collin's Brush' I have an idea that Collins was an entertainer vocalist, and his 'brush' may have meant 'nosegay,' as in Devon. I append this 'Collins Brush ' variant of' The Cruel Ship's Carpenter ' tune": [Same melody as above

From Collins Brush The Dew [sic] that flies over the Mulberry Tree.