Lady Margaret- Huddleston (Ark.) c.1972 Wolfe Collection
[From The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection; online.
R. Matteson 2014]
Lady Margaret- Huddleston (Ark.) c.1972; Here is an interview with Mrs. Huddleston who lived in Batesville, Ark.
(Dr. Wolf: "Where'd you learn that song?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "I learned it when I was a kid at home."
Dr. Wolf: "Where was that? Where?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "Where Carson Huddleston lived. You know where he lives?"
Dr. Wolf: "Yeah."
Mrs. Huddleston: "Well, I was raised there."
Dr. Wolf: "Oh, were you?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "Yeah. Jack Huddleston, or John Huddleston was my daddy."
Dr. Wolf: "Who taught you the song?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "My daddy. My daddy was a schoolteacher before he married my mother, and mother didn't want him to teach school, and he was a-studying doctor books, great big old medical books. Was going to make a doctor. And you know, she refused . . . she wouldn't let him. And he bought that eighty acres over there. Carson's on there now. It belongs to Carson. We all sold our part to Carson. And, so."
Dr. Wolf: "What was your daddy's full name?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "John. People called him Jack, though. Aunt Betty Ball called him Jack; it was her brother, you know, . . . Barnett's mother. . . . mother was my Daddy's sister."
Dr. Wolf: "Now, where did you learn 'The Pretty Golden Queen'?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "Well, I learned it at home."
Dr. Wolf: "Did you father teach you that one?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "My mother taught us."
Dr. Wolf: "Your mother? I see. And how about 'Black Jack Davy'?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "Well, I learned it then. We used to sing 'Black Jack Davy.' I learnt that over there at home."
Dr. Wolf: "Where'd you learn, "Come All Young Girls"?"
Mrs. Huddleston: " '. . . of a Rambling Nature'? Well, I learnt it then too, but it was later, you know, after we learnt them other songs."
Dr. Wolf: "How about the wagon, 'Wait For the Wagon and We'll All Take a Ride'?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "I never have got all of that. I've got it all but the last verse."
Dr. Wolf: "Where'd you learn that one?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "I must have learned it from my daddy."
Dr. Wolf: "I see. And how about 'Sanford Barnes'?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "'Billy Barnes'?"
Dr. Wolf: "'Billy Barnes,' yes."
Mrs. Huddleston: "I learned it from my Daddy. It don't
. . . that change now like it used to be, you know. That's a great old long song, too, and the 'Pretty Golden Queen,' I guess I wrote you that one."
Dr. Wolf: "Yes, and let's see, there was another one, 'Barbry Allen.' Did you learn that . . ."
Mrs. Huddleston: "I learned that from my Daddy. I've heard him sing it a many a night."
Dr. Wolf: "Well, you learned just about all of them from him."
Mrs. Huddleston: "You se, I'm the oldest one in the family, and there was, uh, me and my sister Minnie, and Daisy, Lucy and Julie, five girls. Well, there was . . . and Alphie and . . . and Carson, four boys. Well, we'd listen to him sing at night to them least ones . . . you know, these songs, and we learnt them . . . Yes sir, and he was setting a-rocking the little ones, see, to sleep. Yes sir. You see, us girls were the oldest ones in the family, except Julie, my baby sister. And she bought her a fine home at Hay-tie (?), Missouri, and she went to church and Sunday school one Sunday and helped them sing, got back to her gate, and she dropped dead. Heart trouble. But she had been to the . . . in a hospital, you know, before she went up there, and they told her that she ought not to stay by herself. And she . . . she didn't even get in the house, now. You know, she lived there in . . . in the town, and they seen her fall. And they got down there, she was dead. You know houses are close together in these towns. Well, I hate it bad . . . but she was way younger than me. And I'm the oldest one. And I'll be 83 on Halloween day."
Dr. Wolf: "Will you?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "Yes. 83 years, I tell you, that's old age. Yes, I was born in 1879."
Dr. Wolf: "Is that so?"
Mrs. Huddleston: "Yes. I've got some old nickels that was made in 1800. I've been thinking I'd write and see what I could get out of them. I've got five old nickels.")
LADY MARGARET (FAIR MARGARET AND SWEET WILLIAM) Sung by: Mrs. Nettie Huddleston Barnes; Batesville, Ark. She was 83 (born in 1879) around 1972 and learned some of her songs as a child. This dates back to the late 1800s or early 1900s.
[Listen: Mrs. Nettie Huddleston Barnes]
(Mrs. Huddleston: "I can't sing, I tell you. I ain't got much breath left . . ."
Dr. Wolf: "Oh, that's all right.")
Lady Margaret was sitting in a high window,
A-combing of her long curly hair,
When she saw Sweet Willie and his own true love
Go riding up to church together.
When she saw Sweet Willie and his own true love
Go riding up to church together.
It's down she flung her . . . comb,
And it's back she slung her hair.
She placed herself in a high window,
Saying, "I will never go there."
She placed herself in a high window,
Saying, "I will never go there."
The hours passed on, and the days went by,
When alls young (?) people should arise.
Sweet Willie, he arose and he slipped on his clothes,
And it was all for Lady Margaret's sake.
Sweet Willie, he arose and he slipped on his clothes,
And it was all for Lady Margaret's sake.
He rode and he rode 'til he come to a gate,
And the jingles of the bells were heard,
And none so ready to rise and let him in
As Lady Margaret's own waiting maid,
And none so ready to rise and let him in,
As Lady Margaret's own waiting maid.
Lay back, lay back those lily-white sheets,
All made of linen so fine,
And let me kiss those clay cold lips,
Where oft they've kissed . . . mine.
(Comment by Mrs. Huddleston: "I'm give out. I don't hardly know it all. I've forgot it.")