Georgie- Gaunt (RI) c.1954 Leach
[From: Bronson, TTCB, 1966, No. 15 from LC/AAFS rec. No. 9981 (A1). Bronson lists it from Sperryville R.I. but I have Mrs. Tiny Gaunt from Rappahannock County, Virginia. One recording of this housed at the University of Pennsylvania; Folklore and Ethnography Archives; Special Collections:
Reference Type: Audiovisual Material
Record Number: 3
Author: Leach, MacEdward
Year: [not given] c. 1954
Title: Leach Southern Mountain Collection
Series Editor: J. Mahoney, Tiny Gaunt
City: [not given]
Number: 1 of 7 reels
Date: [not given]
Short Title: Leach Southern Mountain Collection
Format: Reel-to-reel
Accession Number: T-71/00004
Rhode Island is hardly in the Southern Mountains so it seems Bronson is wrong here.
R. Matteson 2013, 2016]
Georgie- Sung by Mrs. Tiny Gaunt of Sperryville, VA? dated c.1954. Collected by Leach and Beck, transcribed Bronson.
Go saddle me my milk-white steed,
Go saddle him quite steady,
That I may ride to King Henry's hall,
To plead for the life of Georgie.
As she drew near King Henry's hall
She placed herself quite steady.
King Henry says, You're a day too late,
For young Georgie's condemned already.
Young George never robbed on the King's highway,
Nor he never murdered any;
But he stole sixteen of the King's horses
And he sold them in Bokenny.
Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Way down beneath yon willow.
One grave can do for to hold a soul,
And my arms can do for pillow.