Lowlands of Holland- Catherine Parker Lassiter c. 1860s
[This ballad, The Lowlands of Holland, is based on or has a similar to the plot of Child 92, "Bonny Bee Hom." The Lowlands of Holland has an active tradition abroad and has been found in the US and Canada. The "Bonny Bee Hom" disappeared from tradition. Bronson and I both list "Lowlands" as an Appendix to Child 92.
See David Herd's Scots' Songs', 1776 [Napolean then being 7 years old]. James Oswald had published the tune "The Lowlands of Holland" in book 2 of 'The Caledonian Pocket Companion', c 1745. The song with a different tune is in 'The Scots Musical Museum;, II, #115, 1788.
US versions are found in SharpK, English Folk-Songs from the Southern Appalachians, I, 200; "Soldier Bride's Lament" Combs, F-S Etats-Unis, 173 and Gray, Sgs Ballads Me Lks, 88. Canadian versions were collected by Leach and also Peacock.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE LOWLANDS OF HOLLAND
1. The night that I was married and we were lying a bed,
There came a sturdy captain and stood at my bed head,
Saying; "Rise up, William Riley, and come along with me
To the lowlands of Holland to fight the en-e-my.
2. Low Holland is a pretty little place, but, it grows no green
And there's no harboring place for my love to remain:
No sugar grapes are plenty; no vine grows 'round the tree;
Since the low lands of Holland have parted my love and me.
3. Said the mother to her daughter, "Why do you so lament?"
"Are there not, other men enough to pass your heart's content?"
Said the daughter to her mother, "Don't talk that way to me,
Since the low lands of Holland have parted my love and me."
4. "There'll be no sash go round my waist; no ribbon in my hair,
Nor firelight nor candlelight shall show my beauty fair;
And no ne'er will I be married until the day I die,
Since the low lands of Holland have parted my love and me.
Notes: Remembered, both words and melody, by Mrs. L.L.McDowell from the singing of her mother, Catherine Parker Lassiter. Mrs. McDowell could not, at first, make sure of the source, so early in infancy was the memory; until Mrs. Lassiter herself told
her. Very few living people have ever heard the song.