Lord Daniel's Wife- Hill (WV) 1916 Cox
[Fragment from Cox; Folk Songs of the South; 1925.
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
15. LITTLE MUSGRAVE AND LADY BARNARD (Child, No. 81)
Diligent search has failed to recover any more of this ballad in West Virginia tradition than the following stanza, contributed by Mr. John Hill, Hughey, Logan County, January 7, 1916 (printed by Cox, xlvi, 22, 64; cf. 145). This was all he could remember except that a person named Matthew Groves, or Mathy Groves, was mentioned in the song.
The first came down all dressed in red,
The next came down in green;
The next came down Lord Daniel's wife,
As fair as any queen.
For Nova Scotia texts see Mackenzie, Journal, xxiii, 371, and xxv, 182 (Quest, p. 14), Texts from Kentucky (Wyman) and Missouri (Belden) are printed by Kittredge, Journal, xxx, 309; from North Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky, by Campbell and Sharp, No. 20 (29 B is reprinted by Pound, No. 15). For reports from Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina, and South Carolina, see references in Journal, xxx, 309. Add Bulletin, Nos. 6, 7, 9, 10.