Brisk Young Miner- Sam Fone (Dev) 1893 Baring-Gould
[From: Sabine Baring-Gould Manuscript Collection (SBG/1/2/251). As usual, we're not sure what's traditional and what's rewritten by Baring Gould. "Plymouth Town" was probably inserted as "I would, I would," for "I wish, I wish" and "dandled." In the last stanza "dumb and never heard" has never been heard and the last line is not traditional.
R. Matteson 2017]
D. Brisk Young Miner - attributed to Sam Fone of Mary Tavy, Devon. March 30, 1893. Collected and arranged by Sabine Baring Gould. From his MS notebook version D.
1. A brisk young miner courted me
He stole away my liberty;
He stole my heart, with a right good will,
For all he’s done– I love him still.
2. There is a house in fair Plymouth town
Where my false love, he sits him down
With another girl upon his knee
A heartache & a grief to me.
3. A grief to me, I’ll tell you why,
She has more gold & show than I.
Her gold will waste, her beauty blast
And she will be as me at last.
4. I would, I would, my babe were born
And dandled on its father’s arm
And I myself were in my grave
And green grass did above me wave.
5. In yonder churchyard is a bird
They say ‘tis dumb & never heard
They say ‘tis blind & cannot see
O would it had been so with me.