Bluegrass Messengers

Come, all you maids of honour- Hills (Sus) 1900 Merrick

[From: Merrick, JFFS, 1901, also in The Traditional Tunes of the Child Ballads - Volume 1, page 132 by Bertrand Harris Bronson.

R. Matteson 2018]

Come, all you maids of honour- sung by Henry Hills of Shepperton, Sussex in 1900, from Merrick, JFFS 1901.

Come, all you maids of honour,
You maids of high renown,
Oh! never wed a soldier,
'Twould pull your honour down.

Here's your love and my love,
It never can agree.
So take this as a warning,
Bold dragoon, said she.

My father is a lord,
A lord of high renown;
 If I should wed a soldier
'Twould pull his honour down.

Fight on! said the lady;
Fight on! the captain cried,
And you shall have my daughter,
And a thousand pounds beside.

Oh, what's a thousand pounds
Out of my father's purse?
It is but a small trifle
To what my father's worth.

Oh, hold your hand, bold dragoon, if
That fortune is too small;
Oh, hold your hand, bold dragoon,
And you shall have it all.

The general he  has won the crown,
The honour of King Victory
And the bold light dragoon.