The Child Ballads from England and Wales in the James Madison Carpenter Collection
by David Atkinson
Folk Music Journal, Vol. 7, No. 4, Special Issue on the James Madison Carpenter Collection (1998), pp. 434-449
The Child Ballads from England and Wales in the James Madison Carpenter Collection
DAVID ATKINSON
James Madison Carpenter brought the academic legacy of Francis James Child to bear upon folksong collecting in England, and placed Child balladsfrom England and Wales alongside those from Scotland and America. The ballads from England and Wales in the Carpenter Collection are described and the importance of the Collection to the study of traditional song and balladry in England is outlined. Some different versions of a single ballad type collected by Carpenter in England are briefly compared.
ON A TYPEWRITTEN SHEET in his Collection, James Madison Carpenter elaborated upon his claim that his planned but never published edition of 'British and American Traditional Ballads' would be 'the most valuable collection of Child ballads with tunes
ever published'.l Among other things, he specifically mentioned that it would be the only traditional collection to include both British and American versions of Child ballads: the former 'collected during forty thousand miles of travel through Britain,
placing side by side versions from Land's End to John o Groats' (emphasis added); the latter collected from nine Southern states. In fact, not only had British and American ballads not been printed together since Francis James Child's standard edition of New English and Scottish Popular Ballads,[2] but neither had ballads collected from singing in England
and Wales been placed alongside those from Scotland. Carpenter's English ballads are
primarily from the south midlands and Comwall, with a few from other places; these
last are mostly from shanty singers in seaports, as are all the ballads from Wales.
The particular attention that Carpenter gave to the Child ballads is scarcely surprising. He was, after all, working under the auspices of Harvard, where Francis James
Child had spent virtually the whole of his academic life, and he had the active support
of Child's designated successor, George Lyman Kittredge.[3] Child's work s with the ballads, and the long-running debate about ballad origins that followed his death, had provided a focus for ideas about native culture and national identity, all of which served to ensure a privileged place for the ballads in the development of an American theory of folklore.4 It also lent a scholarly cast to the activity of folksong collecting
in North America, and a glance at the published collections will regularly find the
Child ballads grouped together at the beginning, as in the place of honour.
In England, on the other hand, the Child ballads were much less obviously
privileged by the early collectors, even though Cecil Sharp especially was influenced
by Child's ideas. Child himself had been supplied with copies of ballads collected
directly from singers by Sabine Baring-Gould, but he made somewhat erratic use of
this matenal, and the tradition of ballad singing in England is only sparsely represented
in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads[5]. Not least because the revival of interest in Scottish singing traditions began a century before its English counterpart, Child's
edition, its title notwithstanding, is dominated by Scottish ballads.6 Carpenter was
arguably the first to bring the academic legacy of Child directly to bear upon folksong
collecting in England and, even though the majority of his ballads are from Scotland,
his attention to Child ballads from England and Wales distinguishes his work from
that of his English predecessors, and even to a degree from that of Child himself.
The present brief survey of the ballad texts from England and Wales concentrates
upon the material which Carpenter evidently intended to go into his 'British and
American Traditional Ballads', which is included on Reels 4-7 of the microfilm copy
of the Carpenter Collection.7 Given the unfinished state of this projected ballad
edition, the unedited state of the Carpenter Collection as a whole, and the necessity
of relying on microfilmed materials, it is not at present possible to provide much
more than a preliminary discussion of the ballads and some indication of lines of
enquiry which may prove fruitful. On Microfilm Reel 4 are texts of Child ballads,
mostly from Scotland, England, and Wales, with the different versions of each mostly
grouped together and the ballads arranged in alphabetical order by their generic titles
(which are not always Child's titles, however). The ballad texts are largely typewritten,
but they are frequently altered by hand. These texts have the appearance of rough
drafts and they may represent the actual typescripts Carpenter took down in the field
from his informants' dictation. In some cases, other titles, some of which may be the
informants' own, are given along with the generic ballad title. The informants' names
and addresses are given at the top of the text, along with snippets of other contextual
information about their ballad versions, such as who they were learned from, or the
fact that the singer never saw a copy in print; some of this contextual information,
however, is crossed through by hand. There are also a number of ballad texts copied
from printed or manuscript sources (including Scottish material collected by the
Reverend James B. Duncan and Gavin Greig, and English texts from various sources
including the Journal of the Folk-Song Society).
On Microfilm Reels 5 and 6 are fair copies of the ballad texts. They include most
but not all of the ballad texts from Microfilm Reel 4 and incorporate the handwritten
alterations; there are also some additional texts, notably ballads collected later in
America. However, the contextual information crossed through on Microfilm Reel
4, and also a few of the texts, are omitted. On Microfilm Reel 7 are transcriptions
of ballad tunes, often with more than just one stanza of the words but usually with
no other information than the singer's name. These include many of the tunes to the
texts on Microfilm Reels 4 and 5-6, as well as a number of tune transcriptions for
which there are no typewritten texts. Elsewhere in the Carpenter Collection there
are a very few additional ballads, along with further copies of ballad texts and tunes,
more ballads from printed sources, and various notes about ballads. Some of the ballads
are also to be found as sound recordings, although it is not always possible to know
who is singing them.
Table 1 lists Carpenter's ballads from England and Wales, and the informants for
each of them. Table 2 lists the informants and their ballads; variant titles; addresses
and other pieces of information, including details crossed through but still legible on
Microfilm Reel 4; tune transcriptions (with text); sound recordings, where they are
readily identifiable by the singer's name; the places where a few of the ballad versions
have been reprinted; and some known and possible connections between the infor-
mants and other song collectors. The information presented in Tables 1 and 2 is
conflated from Microfilm Reels 4-7, occasionally supplemented with information
from elsewhere in the Collection. Some of Carpenter's errors over names and geo-
graphy have been silently corrected. Two of the ballads are reproduced in Figures 1
and 2.
It has to be acknowledged that uncertainty still surrounds the provenance of some
of the ballads in the Carpenter Collection.8 For the present, though, Tables 1 and 2
list seventeen Child ballads (i.e. ballad, 'types', each with a separate number in The
English and Scottish Popular Ballads), plus 'The Holy Well' and 'The Bitter Withy'.9
There are some seventy-three individual ballad texts and/or tunes (i.e. ballad
'versions'), from some fifty-one different informants.10 A few comparative figures may
be useful here. There are 305 Child ballad types in all, and tunes to forty-six of them
are printed in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Carpenter's ownv figures for his
British and American ballads are 123 ballad types, with tunes to 114 of them, and
from Scotland, England, and Wales, 116 ballad types, with tunes to 107 of them.'1
The ballads from Scotland, England, and Wales comprise 611 separate texts and 788
tunes, and come from around two hundred different informants.'2 There are therefore
many more ballads from Scotland than from England and Wales. On the other hand,
the number of different informants points to a fair breadth of ballad singing in England
and Wales, and several of them gave Carpenter other songs as well.13 Tables 1 and 2
list the ballads and their singers.
The Child ballads in the Carpenter Collection are not unrepresentative of what
is now known about ballad singing in England, in spite of the relatively small size of
his sample in comparison with, say, Cecil Sharp's collecting. Some 360 versions of
forty-seven Child ballad types are indexed to Sharp's English manuscripts.'4 'Lady
Isabel and the Elf-Knight' ('The Outlandish Knight') (Child 4), 'The Broomfield
Hill' (Child 43), 'Young Beichan' ('Lord Bateman') (Child 53), 'The Unquiet Grave'
(Child 78), 'Bonny Barbara Allan' (Child 84), 'The Baffled Knight' (Child 112), 'The
Gypsy Laddie' (Child 200), and 'The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)' (Child 286), which were all collected by Carpenter, all feature among Sharp's top ten Child
ballad types for numbers of versions collected. A cumulative listing from indexes to
the six manuscript collections of Sharp, George B. Gardiner, the Hammond brothers,
Clive Carey, Percy Grainger, and Frank Kidson gives some 687 versions of sixty-
three Child ballad types. Sixteen of Carpenter's seventeen Child ballad types occur
among thirty types for which there are seven or more versions in this cumulative
.lsting.
Unsurprisingly, romantic and tragic themes predominate among the ballads Carp-
enter collected in England and Wales, as indeed they do in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. 'The Outlandish Knight' is possibly the most common Child ballad
in England, closely followed by 'Bonny Barbara Allan' and the revenant ballad 'The
Unquiet Grave'. Comic ballads are represented by 'Our Goodman' (Child 274) and
'The Farmer's Curst Wife' (Child 278). Carpenter collected versions of 'The Farmer's
Curst Wife' which are adapted to a shanty form with a 'Blow the man down' refrain.
He also found a somewhat nautical version of 'The Baffled Knight', in which the
male character is 'a sailor,/With a true seaman's air', and shanty singers gave him 'The
Golden Vanity' and 'The Mermaid' (Child 289). These ballads from seaports may be
thought of as sharing something of the international status of shanties.
A typescript essay by Carpenter on 'Christmas Mummers and Cornish Carols',
which refers to the mixture of Christian and pre-Christian traditions to be encountered
in Cornwall, may suggest he had a particular interest in a quasi-Christian, supernatural
group of ballads.'5 Here Carpenter discusses 'The Elfin Knight' alongside 'The Bitter
Withy', 'The Holy Well', 'The Cherry-Tree Carol' (Child 54), 'Dives and Lazarus'
(Child 56), and 'The Camal and the Crane' ('King Herod and the Cock') (Child 55).
In fact, the whole group of ballads based on Christian legends arguably has a particular
association with England. Carpenter collected 'The Cherry-Tree Carol', 'The Holy
Well' (which appears only ever to have been collected in England) and 'The Bitter
Withy' in Cornwall, but not 'The Carnal and the Crane' or 'Dives and Lazarus'.
Another common English ballad is 'The Elfin Knight', a 'riddle' or 'wit combat'
ballad, which is perhaps best known as 'Scarborough Fair' or as the seemingly near-
nonsense song 'An Acre of Land'. In Cornwall, however, Carpenter came across a
remarkable version entitled 'King Ethelred and Cheeld-Vean' (Figure 1).16 This text
retains a confrontational structure based around gender and power differences, as in
'Scarborough Fair' and other wit combat ballads, but here the female character is said
to be a little child ('cheeld-vean').'7 She not only says that she is able to carry out
the seemingly impossible tasks set by the king, but also counters them by setting some
of her own. Carpenter's typescript seems to suggest that this is an adaptation of the
ballad to a local legend, which perhaps took the form of a chantefable, although a
glance at collections of Cornish folklore has not provided any analogues.
Carpenter, then, came across a varied and fairly representative part of the English
tradition of ballad singing. While such an observation poses questions way beyond
the scope of the present discussion-touching, for instance, on the concept of
'Englishness' on the one hand, and on the significance of balladry as an aesthetic and
cultural category on the other- Carpenter's work could indirectly be credited with
raising them.18 For the first time since Child, and arguably even for the first time
altogether, his Collection places ballads from oral tradition in England alongside their
Scottish counterparts, and the post-Child, American academic perspective that
Carpenter brought to bear upon his fieldwork resulted in a collection that discloses
a pattern in traditional singing that had not previously been made properly apparent.
All the same, Carpenter's collecting was not completely unconnected with that
of his English predecessors, and he may have consciously followed in their footsteps
and sought out some of their informants. The south midlands area had already been
visited by Cecil Sharp, Percy Grainger and Alfred Williams earlier in the century,
and Peter Kennedy collected there in the 1950s. Williams had previously collected
'The Gypsy Laddie' from George Giles at Filkins. At Bampton, Carpenter's informant
Harry Wiltshire had learned 'The Gypsy Laddie' some fifty years previously from
Shadrach ('Shepherd') Hayden, from whom both Sharp and Williams had collected this same ballad. Among the most celebrated of Carpenter's English singers was Sam
Bennett of Ilmington, who was also a Cotswold morris fiddler. Phonograph recordings
of some of his fiddle tunes and a couple of songs were made by Grainger; Sharp
collected songs and tunes from him and, when Kennedy recorded him again, he sang
a song under the title 'Blow Away the Moming Dew' (though it is seemingly rather
different from 'The Baffled Knight' collected by Carpenter).
Sharp had already collected shanties in Bristol but Carpenter seems to have been
more or less the first to collect in Cardiff and Barry Docks. Tom Miners sent songs
from the west of Cornwall to Sharp, who also collected in the area in person, taking
down 'The Holy Well' from Sam Heather and Sidney Veale (sic) and 'The Cherry-
Tree Carol' from Jim Thomas. Miners continued collecting in collaboration with
H. E. Piggott and J. E. Thomas, and published songs from James (presumably Jim)
Thomas. The Cornish collector Ralph Dunstan also had 'Our Goodman' from Jim
Thomas, though Carpenter himself seems to have had his ballads from a manuscript
of Jim Thomas's (the present whereabouts or even existence of which appears to be
unknown), and may not have collected from him in person. However, another of
his informants, Bessie Wallace, was Jim Thomas's granddaughter and learned songs
from him. It looks very much as if Jim Thomas was well known as a local singer
who, along with Tom Miners, may have been an important link in the dissemination
and recovery of songs in the Camborne area.
One thing that the Carpenter Collection emphasises is the substantial scope that
remains for investigating the networks of collectors and informants that run through
the English folksong revival from its very beginning. Another area for research is into
the transmission of particular songs that have been collected on more than one occa-
sion. According to handwritten notes, after Carpenter had collected six stanzas of
'The Holy Well' from Sidney Veal, he read him the ten-stanza version that Sharp
had collected from him in 1913; he firmly denied ever having known it and insisted,
'These six verses are all I ever knew of "The Holy Well" .19 Another sort of compari-
son is exemplified by the nine stanzas of 'Lady Maisry' known by Mrs Arthur Nightin-
gale and the five known by her husband; they were sung to different tunes and look
very much as if they were learned independently.20
Carpenter's collection of English ballads is not only in some degree representative
but also includes some individually very interesting versions. While the constraints of
space prohibit full discussion, it is worth briefly looking at his texts of a single ballad
type, 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' (Child 95). This has been the subject of
an extensive comparative study by Eleanor Long, which assists the identification both
of characteristic and of more unusual features in the texts collected by Carpenter.21
William Titchener's version (Figure 2) begins with a seemingly unique initial address,
to 'Ragaman, Jagaman', followed by an equally (and grammatically) obscure injunc-
tion, 'stay for all thee sorrow', in the second line.22 In the fourth line the dialect
word 'tripplin' replaces a more mundane participle such as 'coming'.23 The phrase
'white money', to ransom the prisoner, also seems worthy of note. Most remarkable,
though, is the sequence of relatives/friends in this particular version. It is his true love
whom the condemned man sees crossing the stile first, but she has only come to see
him hang; instead it is his father who finally brings the ransom that will save him
from the gallows.24
Another version of the ballad, called 'The Prickalalie Tree', collected by Carpenter
from an Oxfordshire mummer, begins with the injunction, 'stop your horse', and the
protagonist is identified as 'Joe'.25 The line in the second stanza, 'To keep myself
from the cold grey ground', seems to be a variant of more usual forms such as 'To
keep my body from the cold clay ground'. Most interestingly, the following line,
'An' my eye from the prickalalie tree', effectively integrates the 'prickly bush', which
is usually confined to the refrain, into the body of the narrative. The 'eye' remains
largely unexplained, although its juxtaposition with the notion of pricking creates a
poetically effective image for a man recoiling from the gallows. This time it is his
truelove who brings the ransom to set him free.26
The version from Bessie Wallace is fairly similar to other English and American
texts in which the protagonist is saved from the gallows by the restitution of a lost
golden ball.27 It does not have an accompanying prose narrative or explanation,
although these are often found with this form of the ballad. A single stanza copied
by Carpenter from a newspaper, however, is prefaced by a summary of the 'golden
ball' narrative: 'Father, mother, sister, brother they all fail-lover brings golden ball,
which a frog had restored to him from the well into which it had been thrown'.28
This explanation has quite possibly been influenced by the folktale 'The Frog King,
or Iron Henry'. Carpenter's last version of 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' is the
tune transcription from William Butler, which provides only the text of the 'prickly
briar' refrain.29
These versions of 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' can be regarded as character-
istic of the Child ballads collected by Carpenter in the way that they encompass a
blend of the typical and the idiosyncratic. The value of such a collection-and of
the potentially endless scholarly exercise of accumulating Child ballad texts and tunes,
of which Carpenter's work is an especially fine instance-lies in just this combination
of the representative and the unique. Carpenter's collection of ballads from England
and Wales embodies some of the editorial problems of the Carpenter Collection as
a whole but at the same time it suggests some of its research potential. For the first
time, Carpenter brought the academic tradition of Child to bear directly upon ballad
collecting in England and, with the comparative possibilities of a ballad edition, his
collection of 'British and American Traditional Ballads' offers valuable new material
both for the study of balladry at large and for research into traditional song in England
in particular.
Notes
1 The James Madison Carpenter Collection, AFC 1972/001, Archive of Folk Culture, American
Folklife Center, Library of Congress. A microfilm copy of the Collection is held at the Vaughan Williams
Memorial Library, London, VWML Microfilm Reels 46-55, and it is on this copy that the present study
is based. The quotation is from 'British and American Traditional Ballads', unpublished typescript, AFC
1972/001, Folder 67 (Box 3A); on Microfilm Reel 5.
2 The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. by Francis James Child, 5 vols (Boston: Houghton,
Mifflin, 1882-98; repr. New York: Dover, 1965).
3 See Julia C. Bishop, "'Dr Carpenter from the Harvard College in America": An Introduction to
James Madison Carpenter and His Collection', in this issue of Folk MusicJournal.
4 The standard account of Child's legacy is D. K. Wilgus, Anglo-American Folksong Scholarship since
1898 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1959), with a more contentious version in Dave
Harker, Fakesong: The Manufacture of British 'Folksong' 1700 to the Present Day, Popular Music in Britain
(Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1985), pp. 101-37. For some broader perspectives on Child
and the ballad in American scholarship and culture, see Michael J. Bell, "'No Borders to the Ballad
Maker's Art": Francis James Child and the Politics of the People', Western Folklore, 47 (1988), 285-307;
Michael J. Bell, "'The Only True Folk Songs We Have in English": James Russell Lowell and the
Politics of the Nation', Journal of American Folklore, 108 (1995), 131-55; David E. Whisnant,
448 DAVID ATKINSON
Native and Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Region, The Fred W. Morrison Series in Southern
Studies (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1983); Rosemary Levy Zumwalt, American
Folklore Scholarship: A Dialogue of Dissent, Folkloristics (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University
Press, 1988).
5 David Atkinson, 'Sabine Baring-Gould's Contribution to The English and Scottish Popular Ballads',
in Ballads into Books: The Legacies of Francis James Child: Selected Papers from the 26th International Ballad
Conference (SIEF Ballad Commission), Swansea, Wales, 19-24July 1996, ed. Tom Cheesman and Sigrid
Rieuwerts (Bern: Peter Lang, 1997), pp. 41-52. Child, V, 397-404, 'Sources of the Texts of the English
and Scottish Ballads', gives some indication of the use of English sources in The English and Scottish
Popular Ballads. It is worth noting that Baring-Gould included quite a variety of songs from oral tradition
among the texts he sent to Child and seemingly made little special effort to select ballad texts per se,
even though he was aware of Child's scholarly work.
6 The earlier printed broadside tradition, however, is strongly represented in The English and Scottish
Popular Ballads and, since many of these were printed in London, at least some sort of English provenance
can be claimed for a substantial number of well-known ballads.
7 Microfilm Reel 4 corresponds to AFC 1972/001, Folders 44-57; Reel 5 to Folders 58-80; Reel 6
to Folders 81-99; Reel 7 to Folders 100-124. There is also additional material to be found here: songs
of other kinds, tunes, drafts of essays and notes on various subjects, lists, short bibliographies, letters,
mummers' play texts, and so on.
8 Difficulties arise out of such things as the contextual information crossed through on Microfilm
Reel 4; occasions where ballads from printed sources are not clearly identified; and the ballad texts
included on Microfilm Reel 4 but not incorporated into the fair copies on Microfilm Reels 5-6.
Particular problems include a text of 'The Bitter Withy' headed with the title of a printed source (though
it is not a precise copy of it) but also with the names 'James Roberts, Bradford-Dr. Hamley Rowe,
Bradford' crossed through (AFC 1972/001, Folder 53 (Box 2, Packet 2J); on Microfilm Reel 4). There
is confusion, too, over the name of Sidney or Samuel Veal who sang 'The Holy Well' and 'The Bitter
Withy', though the probability is that there was only one informant, i.e. Sidney Veal (AFC 1972/001,
Folder 45 (Box 2, Packet 2B); on Microfilm Reel 4; AFC 1972/001, Folder 84 (Box 4D); on Microfilm
Reel 6; AFC 1972/001, Folder 111 (Box 5, Packet IL); on Microfilm Reel 7; AFC 1972/001, Folder
158 (Box 7, Packet 2B); on Microfilm Reel 9.
9 'The Holy Well' and 'The Bitter Withy' are often discussed along with Child's ballads on Christian
legends (the 'religious' ballads) although they are not in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Carpenter
also included among his ballad texts a song listed as a version of 'Captain Ward and the Rainbow' (Child
287), but which is actually a song called 'As We Were A-Sailing', which has nothing to do with the
Child ballad apart from the name of the ship, and is not counted here.
10 Groups like 'pub singers' and 'little girl singers' are each counted as one informant.
'British and American Traditional Ballads'.
12 'British and American Traditional Ballads', and Julia C. Bishop, "'The Most Valuable Collection
of Child Ballads with Tunes Ever Published": The Unfinished Work of James Madison Carpenter', in
Ballads into Books, p. 84. Given the unedited state of the Carpenter Collection, it is difficult to be exact
about any of these figures.
13 A few of these other songs are reprinted in Everyman's Book of British Ballads, ed. by Roy Palmer
(London: Dent, 1980), pp. 42-43, 122-23, 174-76; Roy Palmer, 'Cruising with Carpenter', English
Dance & Song, 47.2 (1985), 14-16; Gwilym Davies, 'Percy Grainger's Folk Music Research in Gloucester-
shire, Worcestershire, and Warwickshire, 1907-1909', Folk MusicJournal, 6.3 (1992), 344.
14 All of these comparative figures come from the discussion of the Child ballads in England in David
Atkinson, 'An English Ballad Tradition?' Ljudske balade med izrocilom in sodobnostjo/Ballads between Tradition
and Modern Times, ed. by Marjetka Golez, Proceedings of the 27th International Ballad Conference,
Gozd Martuljek, Slovenia, 13-19 July 1997 (Ljubljana: Zalozba ZRC SAZU, forthcoming), where some
of the problems of such numerical analysis are also outlined. It is difficult to be exact because the figures
are based on indexes and not on detailed examination of the manuscripts, and some versions are arguably
not truly Child ballads. So far as the latter problem is concerned, some effort has been made here to
count the same kinds of versions as Carpenter includes as Child ballads in his collection: in particular,
'An Acre of Land' is counted with 'The Elfin Knight' (Child 2), and 'Mother, Mother, Make my Bed'
is counted as 'Lady Maisry' (Child 65).
15 AFC 1972/001, Folder 158, Box 7 (Packet 2B); on Microfilm Reel 9.
16 The text is collated from the two typescripts in the Carpenter Collection: AFC 1972/001, Folder
56, Box 2 (Packet 2M); on Microfilm Reel 4; and AFC 1972/001, Folder 77 (Box 3K); on Microfilm
Reel 5. The material enclosed in square brackets appears in only the first of these texts, where the four
introductory lines are crossed through ('their' and 'Diddimus??' are more heavily scored out in Carpenter's
typescript), and 'Edgar, Ethelred' is handwritten at the side of the text.
17 See The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, or
Known to Have Been in Use During the Last Two Hundred Years, Founded on the Publications of the English
Dialect Society and on a Large Amount of Material Never Before Printed, ed. by Joseph Wright, 6 vols (London:
Henry Frowde, 1898-1905), 'chiel(d', sb. 3; 'child', sb. 3; 'child-vean', int.; 'vean', adj.; 'wean', sb.;
Oxford English Dictionary, 'child', n. lb, 8b; 'wean', n.
18 Some of these questions are touched upon in Atkinson, 'An English Ballad Tradition?'
19 AFC 1972/001, Folder 45 (Box 2, Packet 2B); on Microfilm Reel 4; AFC 1972/001, Folder 84
(Box 4D); on Microfilm Reel 6.
20 AFC 1972/001, Folder 46 (Box 2, Packet 2C); on Microfilm Reel 4; AFC 1972/001 Folder 88
(Box 4H); on Microfilm Reel 6; AFC 1972/001 Folder 114 (Box 5, Packet 10); on Microfilm Reel
7; AFC 1972/001, 12-inch Discs, AFS 14,983B (Carpenter Disc No. 306); AFS 14,984A (Carpenter
Disc No. 307).
21 Eleanor Long, 'The Maid' and 'The Hangman': Myth and Tradition in a Popular Ballad, Folklore
Studies, 21 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971).
22 AFC 1972/001, Folder 48 (Box 2, Packet 2E); on Microfilm Reel 4; AFC 1972/001, Folder 93
(Box 4M); on Microfilm Reel 6. The latter text is reproduced in Figure 2.
23 Oxford English Dictionary, 'tripple', v.' 'To trip, move lightly; to dance, skip'.
24 Variant texts in the Carpenter Collection for this ballad from William Titchener, including that
which accompanies the tune transcription, present a somewhat differently arranged version whereby the
father both refuses the ransom and then brings it (AFC 1972/001, Folder 48 (Box 2, Packet 2E); on
Microfilm Reel 4; AFC 1972/001, Folder 116 (Box 5, Packet 1Q); on Microfilm Reel 7). The tune
transcription is reproduced in Julia C. Bishop, 'The Tunes of the English and Scottish Ballads in the
James Madison Carpenter Collection', in this issue of Folk MusicJournal. There is probably also a sound
recording of William Titchener singing this ballad (AFC 1972/001, 12-inch Disc, AFS 14,987B (Carp-
enter Disc No. 314)).
25 AFC 1972/001, Folder 48 (Box 2, Packet 2E); on Microfilm Reel 4; AFC 1972/001, Folder 93
(Box 4M); on Microfilm Reel 6.
26 There are again differences between the typescript text of this version and the text that accompanies
the tune transcription, the most interesting of which is the substitution of 'the eye-berry tree' for 'the
prickalalie tree' (AFC 1972/001, Folder 116 (Box 5, Packet 1Q); on Microfilm Reel 7). There may be
a sound recording of the Chadlington mummer among the unidentified recordings of 'The Maid Freed
from the Gallows' (AFC 1972/001, 12-inch Discs, AFS 14,864B (Carpenter Disc No. 70); AFS 14,944A
(Carpenter Disc No. 227); AFS 14,944B (Carpenter Disc No. 228)).
27 AFC 1972/001, Folder 48 (Box 2, Packet 2E); on Microfilm Reel 4; AFC 1972/001, Folder 93
(Box 4M); on Microfilm Reel 6.
28 AFC 1972/001, Folder 48 (Box 2, Packet 2E); on Microfilm Reel 4. This text, titled 'The Golden
Ball' is apparently from The West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser, Thursday, 30 December 1934, p. 11,
under the heading 'By Comish Firesides', and contributed by Tom Miners, Penponds; it is seemingly
attributed to 'Blewett, Truro'.
29 AFC 1972/001, Folder 116 (Box 5, Packet 1Q); on Microfilm R
Table 1 Ballads from England and Wales in the Carpenter Collection
BALLAD SINGERS
'The Elfin Knight' (Child 2)
W. Belcher
Jim Cox
Daniel Fisher
Edward Newitt
Daniel Price
Jim Thomas
'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight (Child 4)
William Butler
William Hands
[under the title 'Fause Sir John' in the William Newman Carpenter Collection] Sarah Phelps
'The Three Ravens' (Child 26)
George Cook
[under the tide 'The Twa Corbies' in the Carpenter Collection]
'The Broomfield Hill' Arthur Nightingale
(Child 43) Sarah Phelps
William Titchener
'Young Beichan'(Child 53) Sam Bennett
['Lord Bateman' is under this tide in the
Carpenter Collection]
'The Cherry-Tree Carol' (Child 54)
Mrs E. Heather
Tom Miners
Henry Thomas
Jim Thomas
Bessie Wallace
'Lady Maisry' Arthur Nightingale
(Child 65) Mrs Arthur Nightingale
'Lord Lovel' Sam Bennett
(Child 75)
'The Unquiet Grave' Thomas Clappem
(Child 78) George Giles
Arthur Nightingale
Sarah Phelps
Charles Rose
Jack Rose
Tom Tanner
'Bonny Barbara Allan' Sam Bennett
(Child 84) Thomas Bunting
Mrs Cobb
J. Price
Charles Terry
H. L. Terry
Richard Terry
'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' William Butler
(Child 95) A mummer from Chadlington
William Titchener
Bessie Wallace
The Child Balladsfrom England and Wales 439
Table 1. Continued
BALLAD SINGERS
'The Baffled Knight' Sam Bennett
(Child 112) William Fender
Mark Page
David Price
'The Gypsy Laddie' Herbert Blades
(Child 200) Joseph Bound
George Giles
William Hands
Harry Wiltshire
'Our Goodman' William Alder
(Child 274) Sam Bennett
Pub singers, Bampton
H. L. Terry
Richard Terry
Jim Thomas
Bessie Wallace
'The Farmer's Curst Wife' James Garricy
(Child 278) Thomas Hunt
Pub singers, Bampton
Richard Warner
'The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)' William Fender
(Child 286) W. Rennie
Richard Warner
('Captain Ward and the Rainbow' [Child 287]) J. Price
['As We Were A-Sailing', not the Child ballad]
'The Mermaid' Thomas Ginovan
(Child 289)
'The Holy Well' Phyllis Berryman
Miss L. Blamey
Sam Heather
Little girl singers, Praze
Maude Reynolds
Sidney Veal
'The Bitter Withy' Mrs H. Coffins
[Sidney] veal
---
Ballad informants from England and Wales in the Carpenter Collection
Except where indicated, entries refer to Carpenter's transcriptions of the texts of ballads
South Midlands
Alder, William, Station Road, Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire)
* 'Our Goodman' (Child 274) 'The Old Milkin Cow'. Heard in Curragh Camp, Ireland,
near close of South African War. [+tune transcription]
Belcher, W., Drayton, Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire)
. 'The Elfin Knight' (Child 2) 'A Bunch o Green Holly an' Ivy'
Bennett, Sam, Ilmington, Warwickshire
* 'Young Beichan' (Child 53)-'Lord Bateman'. [= tune transcription; +sound recording]
. 'Lord Lovel' (Child 75). Leamed from older brother, James Bennett. [+tune transcription;
+ sound recording]
'Bonny Barbara Allan' (Child 84). [ = tune transcription; + sound recording]
. 'The Baffled Knight' (Child 112) 'Blow Away the Morning Dew'. Learned from members
of family. [+tune transcription; + sound recording]
* 'Our Goodman' (Child 274). FromJohn Gregory, the carter, fifty or sixty years ago. [+ tune
transcription; + sound recording]
Percy Grainger collected songs and fiddle tunes from Sam Bennett, Ilmington, in 1908.
Cecil Sharp collected songs and tunes from Sam Bennett (aged forty-one), Ilmington, in 1909.
Peter Kennedy collected songs from Sam Bennett, Ilmington, in 1950, including 'Blow Away
the Morning Dew' (Sam Bennett and Cecilia Costello, 'Down by the Greenwood Side-i-o ': Songs
s Ballads: Warwickshire & Birmingham [cassette, FSA-60-098, Folktracks Recordings, 1975]).
Bunting, Thomas, Sherborne, Gloucestershire, by Burford, Oxfordshire. A gamekeeper
'Bonny Barbara Allan' (Child 84) 'Barbara Allen'. Leamed from father, James Bunting, sixty
years ago. [+tune transcription]
Butler, William, Bampton, Oxfordshire
'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight' (Child 4) 'The Outlandish Knight'. [ = tune transcription]
. 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' (Child 95). [= tune transcription]
Clappem, Thomas, 26 Driffield, Cirencester, Gloucestershire
. 'The Unquiet Grave' (Child 78) 'Cold Blows the Wind'. Learned from mother, seventy
years ago. [+tune transcription]
Cobb, Mrs, Sapperton, Gloucestershire
* 'Bonny Barbara Allan' (Child 84) 'Barbara Allan'
Co11ins, Mrs H., Broadway, Worcestershire
. 'The Bitter Withy'. [Text typed as prose, followed by the name of Mrs H. Collins]
Cook, George, Park Street, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire
. 'The Three Ravens' (Child 26) 'Three Old Crows'. Learned sixty years ago in Station
Morrisberg, Canada (350 miles from Quebec)
Cox, Jim, Hamptonfields, Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire
* 'The Elfin Knight' (Child 2) 'Sing Holly and Ivy'
Fisher, Daniel, Weston, Newbury, Berkshire
. 'The Elfin Knight' (Child 2) 'A Bunch of Green Holly and Ivy'. Learned as a lad, from
someone in village, fiEy years ago. Never saw in print
Giles, George, Church House, Filkins, Oxfordshire
* 'The Unquiet Grave' (Child 78) 'Cold Blows the Winter Wind'
. 'The Gypsy Laddie' (Child 200)- 'The Daggle Tailed Gypsies O'. Learned tune from old
street singer sixty years ago. Never saw in print. [+tune transcription; +sound recording]
Alied Williams collected 'The Gypsy Laddie' ('The Draggle-Tailed Gipsies') (Child 200) Som
George Giles, Filkins (Alfred Williams, Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames [London: Duckworth,
1923], pp. 121-22; Williams Colleciion Ox. 260
The Child Ballads from England and Wales 443
Table 2. Continued
Hands, William, Willersey, Gloucestershire
* 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight' (Child 4) -'The Outlandish Knight'. From father forty-five
years ago. [+tune transcription]
* 'The Gypsy Laddie' (Child 200) -'Seven Gypsy Laddies'. From father at Chipping Campden,
forty-five years ago. [+tune transcription]
'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight' ('The Outlandish Knight') is reprinted in Roy Palmer, The
Folklore of Gloucestershire (Tiverton: Westcountry Books, 1994), pp. 248-50.
Hunt, Thomas, Weald, Bampton, Oxfordshire
* 'The Farmer's Curst Wife' (Child 278). Learned sixty-five years ago from old singers, perhaps
his father; more likely from drinkers in pubs. [+tune transcription]
A mummer, from Chadlington, Oxfordshire
* 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' (Child 95) -'The Prickalalie Tree'. [+tune transcription]
Newitt, Edward, Oxfordshire
* 'The Elfin Knight' (Child 2) -'Green Holly and Ivy'. [+tune transcription]
Newman, William, Stanway Hill, Stanway, Gloucestershire
* 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight' (Child 4) -'The Outlandish Knight'. Learned as a boy, fifty
years ago. Tune same as Nightingale
(Percy Grainger collected songs from William Newman, Stanton, Gloucestershire, which is close
by Stanway, in 1907.)
Nightingale, Arthur, Didbrook, by Winchcombe, Gloucestershire
. 'The Broomfield Hill' (Child 43)
* 'Lady Maisry' (Child 65). [+tune transcription; +sound recording]
* 'The Unquiet Grave' (Child 78) 'Cold Blows the Winter Wind'. Learned at Winchcombe,
fifty/fifty-five years ago. [+tune transcription; + sound recording]
Nightingale, Mrs Arthur, Didbrook, Gloucestershire
* 'Lady Maisry' (Child 65). Learned from mother in Didbrook, fifty years ago. [+tune transcrip-
tion; + sound recording]
Phelps, Sarah, 7 Council Houses, Avening, Stroud, Gloucestershire
. 'Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight' (Child 4) -'The Outlandish Knight'. Learned as a girl over
fifty years ago; from mother, and neighbours; never learned from print. [+tune transcription]
. 'The Broomfield Hill' (Child 43) 'The Wager'. Learned from sister, Mrs Long, 90 Pretoria
Road, Bordesley Green, Birmingham; over forty years ago. [+tune transcription]
. 'The Unquiet Grave' (Child 78) -'Cold Blows the Wind o'er My True Love'. Learned as a
girl, over fifty years ago, likely from mother; mother knew the song. [+tune transcription]
'The Broomfield Hill' ('The Wager') is reprinted in Palmer, The Folklore of Gloucestershire,
pp. 250-52.
Price, Daniel, [?]
* 'The Elfin Knight' (Child 2). [ tune transcription]
Price, David, Oxfordshire
. 'The Baffled Knight' (Child 112) 'Blow Away the Morning Dew'
Price, J., Oddington, near Islip, Oxfordshire
* 'Bonny Barbara Allan' (Child 84)- 'Barbara Allan'. 1934
. 'Captain Ward and the Rainbow' ([isted as] Child 287). 1934
The song listed as 'Captain Ward and the Rainbow' is in fact 'As We Were A-Sailing', which
can be found in various places, including Traditional Tunes: A Collection of Ballad Airs, ed. by
Frank Kidson (Oxford: Chas. Taphouse, 1891), pp. 99-100; W. Roy Mackenzie, Ballads and
Sea Songsfrom Nova Scotia (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928), pp. 223-24; A
Sailor's Garland, ed. by John Masefield, 2nd edn (London: Methuen, 1908), pp. 292-93.
Pub singers, Bampton, Oxfordshire
* 'Our Goodman' (Child 274). [ sound recording]
. 'The Farmer's Curst Wife' (Child 278). [=sound recording]
Rose, Charles, South Littleton, Worcestershire
* 'The Unquiet Grave' (Child 78). [= tune transcription]
Rose, Jack, [?]
* 'The Unquiet Grave' (Child 78). [ =tune transcription]
Tanner, Tom, Cherington, Avening, by Stroud, Gloucestershire
* 'The Unquiet Grave' (Child 78). [+tune transcription]
Terry, Charles, Long Compton, Warwickshire
* 'Bonny Barbara Allan' (Child 84)- 'Barbara Ellen'. From his father
Terry, H. L., Foxcote Hill, Ilmington, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire
* 'Bonny Barbara Allan' (Child 84) -'Barbara Allan'. Old shepherd, John Carter, Compton
Scorpion, Shipston, 30 years ago; would be ninety if living. [+tune transcription]
* 'Our Goodman' (Child 274)-'My Old Man Came Home Last Night'. From mother, Mrs
G. E. Terry. [+tune transcription]
Terry, Richard, [?]
* 'Bonny Barbara Allan' (Child 84). [ sound recording]
* 'Our Goodman' (Child 274). [ sound recording]
Titchener, William, Station Road, Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire)
* 'The Broomfield Hill' (Child 43)-'The Wager'. From Charles Clements, the Doctor in
mummers, over forty years ago. [+tune transcription]
* 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' (Child 95). Leamed from singers in the village. [+tune
transcription]
Wiltshire, Harry, Bampton, Oxfordshire
. 'The Gypsy Laddie' (Child 200) 'The Daggle Tailed Gypsies'. From Shadrach Hayden, fifty
years ago. [+tune transcription; +sound recording]
Cecil Sharp collected songs from Shepherd Shadwick (sic) Ha(y)den (aged eighty-three/four;
eighty-nine), Bampton, in 1909, 1910, and 1914, including 'The Gypsy Laddie' ('Wraggle
Taggle Gipsies') (Child 200) and 'Young Beichan' ('Lord Bateman') (Child 53) (Sharp
MSS 2308/2103-04, 2371/-).
Cecil Sharp collected a song from Mrs Wiltshire, granddaughter-in-law of Shadwick Haden, in
1914 (Sharp MSS 2943/-).
Alfred Williams collected songs from Shadrach Haydon (sic), Hatford, Berkshire/Bampton,
including 'The Gypsy Laddie' ('The Draggle-Tailed Gipsies') (Child 200) and 'Young Beichan'
('Lord Bateman') (Child 53) (Williams, Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames, pp. 120-21, 147-49;
Williams Collection Ox. 195, [195a]).
Peter Kennedy collected 'The Gypsy Laddie' ('The Daggle-Tailed Gipsies, O') (Child 200),
preceded by talk about Shepherd Haden and Cecil Sharp, from Bert Wiltshire (aged fifty-
three), Bampton, in 1957 (BBC 26368).
Cornwall
Berryman, Phyllis, Hughville Street, Cambome, Comwall
. 'The Holy Well'. From MS of Miss Phyllis Berryman, who leamed it traditionally. [+tune
transcription]
Blamey, Miss L., 69 Southgate, Redruth, Cornwall/Cambome, Comwall
. 'The Holy Well'. Received about 1925 vocally, from some singer in Redruth. Leamed in
public school, evidently from Sharp version. [+tune transcription
Heather, Mrs E., West Charles Street, Camborne, Comwall
* 'The Cherry-Tree Carol' (Child 54). From her father, J. Heather. [+tune transcription]
Heather, Sam, 10 Willington Road, Camborne, Cornwall. Born at Ramsgate, Cornwall, 1858
. 'The Holy Well'. Learned from older singers as child (seventy-seven years old) seventy years
ago; never saw in print. 1934. [+tune transcription]
Cecil Sharp was sent a copy of 'The Holy Well' from Mr S. Heather, Barripper, Cornwall,
which is close by Cambome, by Tom Miners in 1912; Sharp collected 'The Holy Well' from
Samuel Heather (aged fifty-five), Camborne, in 1913 Ujoumal of the Folk-Song Society, 5 [1914],
3; Sharp MSS 2838/2235-36).
Little girl singers, Praze, Cornwall
* 'The Holy Well'. [ sound recording]
Miners, Tom, Penponds, Cambome, Cornwall
. 'The Cherry-Tree Carol' (Child 54). [+tune transcription; +sound recording]
Tom Miners, Camborne, sent 'The Cherry-Tree Carol' (Child 54) to Cecil Sharp in 1912
(Sharp MSS 2744/-).
Reynolds, Maude, East Hill, Tucking Mill, Camborne, Cornwall
* 'The Holy Well'. Learned from Mrs Caroline Thomas, who was eighty-two when she died,
a year ago. Never saw in print. [+tune transcription]
Thomas, Henry, Carrallack Terrace, St Just, Cornwall. Henry Thomas Senior. Eighty years age
* 'The Cherry-Tree Carol' (Child 54). From singing of his mother, who learned it from her
grandmother, Anne Williams, married 1778. His mother an offspring without marriage; lover
not allowed to marry her on account of her poverty. Mr Thomas a huge fair-skinned Dane
or Angle, said that he did not learn more of Cornish carols because they were too gloomy,
almost all in minor key; were lonesome. House overlooking the sea, two or three hundred
yards away. An authority on Old Cornish language. Over six hundred words worked out
with meanings. Sought by everyone. His discovery of meaning of word 'pall' or 'poll', meaning
not 'head', but 'toe'. First thought it meant 'snout'; then the passage, 'Wash not only my
head, but also my feet and every one of toes'. [+tune transcription]
Thomas, Jim, 14 Union Street, Camborne, Cornwall. Died February 1934, at age of eighty-four.
Jim Thomas MS: songs learned from tradition; did not read music; likely copied by several other
collectors
. 'The Elfin Knight' (Child 2) -'King Ethelred and Cheeld-Vean'. Jim Thomas MS
* 'The Cherry-Tree Carol' (Child 54)- [also as] 'When Joseph Was an Old Man'. Jim Thomas
MS
* 'Our Goodman' (Child 274) 'Whiskers on a Baby's Face'. Jim Thomas MS
Cecil Sharp collected songs from J./Jim Thomas (aged sixty-five), Cambome, in 1913 and 1914,
including 'The Cherry-Tree Carol' (Child 54) (Uoumal of the Folk-Song Society, 5 [1914], 11-
12; Sharp MSS 2821/-).
T. Miners and H. E. Piggott collected 'The Nine Joys of Mary' (also noted by Carpenter from
Jim Thomas MS) from James Thomas, Camborne, in 1915 (Joumal of the Folk-Song Society, 5
[1916], 319-20).
J. E. Thomas and T. Miners collected 'Holly and Ivy' from James Thomas (aged seventy-seven),
Union Street, Camborne, in 1924 (Joumal of the Folk-Song Society, 8 [1929], 113-14).
Ralph Dunstan collected songs fromJim Thomas, Camborne, in 1931, including 'Our Goodman'
('Whiskers on a Baby's Face') (Child 274) (Ralph Dunstan, Cornish Dialect and Folk Songs
[Truro: Jordan's Bookshop/London: Reid Bros, 1932], p. 11)
Veal, Sidney (or Samuel), 3 New Road, Troon, Comwall [Samuel is corrected to Sidney for
'The Holy Well' but not for 'The Bitter Withy', though they are probably from the same
informant]
* 'The Holy Well'. Learned at about the age of five (now seventy-seven) from his mother, Mrs
Sarah Veal, St Columb Major; never saw in print. Sung as a Christmas carol. Recorded
December 1934. [+tune transcription]
* 'The Bitter Withy'. [ = tune transcription]
Cecil Sharp was sent a copy of 'The Holy Well' from Sydney Veale (sic), Camborne, by Tom
Miners in 1912; Sharp collected 'The Holy Well' from Sydney Veale, Cambome, in 1913
(Troon is close by Camborne) (Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 5 [1914], 1-2; Sharp MSS 2826/
2233-34).
Wallace, Bessie, Camborne, Cornwall
* 'The Cherry-Tree Carol' (Child 54)-'When Joseph Was an Old Man'. Jim Thomas MS.
Sung by Miss Bessie Wallace, granddaughter, who learned from grandfather, James Thomas,
Camborne, Cornwall; never saw in print. Recorded December 1934 [+tune transcription;
+ sound recording]
. 'The Maid Freed from the Gallows' (Child 95) -'The Golden Ball'. From her grandfather,
Jim Thomas
* 'Our Goodman' (Child 274) -'Whiskers on a Baby's Face'. Jim Thomas MS. Sung by Miss
Bessie Wallace, 14 Union Street, Camborne, Cornwall. [+tune transcription; +sound
recording]
Other Places in England
Blades, Herbert, Hunton, Yorkshire
. 'The Gypsy Laddie' (Child 200)-'The Seven Gypsy Laddies'. [+tune transcription]
Bound, Joseph, Myrtle Hill, Pill, Somerset, near Bristol, Gloucestershire. At sea 1860. Eighty-
two
* 'The Gypsy Laddie' (Child 200). [ tune transcription]
Ginovan, Thomas, Merchant Venturers' Alms House, Bristol, Gloucestershire
. 'The Mermaid' (Child 289) [also as] 'The Stormy Winds'. Recorded 1928
Page, Mark, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northumberland
. 'The Baffled Knight' (Child 112)-'Blow the Winds Heigh Ho!' Heard when he was a
ploughboy. [+tune transcription; +sound recording]
Rennie, W., South Shields, Co. Durham
. 'The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)' (Child 286)- [also as] 'The Lowlands'. [=tune
transcription; + sound recording]
Wales
Fender, William, 16 Sydenham Street, Barry Docks
. 'The Baffled Knight' (Child 112) 'Blow Ye Winds in the Morning'. From a Swansea Cape
Homer. [+sound recording]
. 'The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)' (Child 286) -'Low Lands'
Garricy, James, Cardiff. To sea 1876
. 'The Farmer's Curst Wife' (Child 278)- 'Blow the Man Down'
Warner, Richard, Cardiff. First shipped 1877
. 'The Farmer's Curst Wife' (Child 278) -'Blow the Man Down'
* 'The Sweet Trinity (The Golden Vanity)' (Child 286)-[also as] 'Lowlands, Golden Vanity'.
Recorded 1928
'The Farmer's Curst Wife' ('Blow the Man Down') is reprinted in Roy Palmer, 'Cruising with
Carpenter', English Dance & Song, 47.2 (1985), 15.