On Yonder Hill- Viv Legg (Corn) 2006 REC
[From the recording VT153CD Romany Roots, 2006 by West Country singer Viv Legg. This is obviously the Orchard family version taken from Jean Orchard's grandmother, Dehlia Crocker and recorded by Jean's mother Amy Birch as "Over Yonder's Hill". Song notes by Mike Yates and other Veteran liner notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
Yates: When Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger collected a version of this song from the West Country Gypsy Caroline Hughes they were able to say that, 'There is a large group of love lamentations which have enough verses in common to be called a "family". They are all based upon a man's infidelity to his avowed lover and have been collected widely in England, Scotland and (to a lesser extent) the United States.' (’Travellers Songs from England and Scotland’. 1977, pp. 194-98.) On first glance On Yonder Hill appears to be a collection of so called 'floating verses', but, as several West Country Gypsies have been recorded singing the song in almost identical versions, we can only conclude that we must now consider it to be a specific song. See, for example, the versions sung by Amy Birch (Topic TSCD661) and Jean Orchard (Veteran VT151CD).
Liner notes: Vivienne Legg comes from a long line of traditional singers in her extended family of Orchards, Leggs, and Renals. Her brother Vic Legg first brought to a wider audience the songs that their mother Sophie and aunts Charlotte and Betsy sang. The three sisters were recorded by Pete Coe in 1978, and these records were subsequently released on VT119CD as ‘Catch me if you Can’. In 1994 Vic recorded some of their family songs and these were released on VT129CD ‘I’ve Come to Sing a Song’. Sophie now lives with Viv and has encouraged her to sing some of the family songs which have never been recorded. Viv is the next volume in this fascinating story.
On Yonder Hill- Viv Legg
On yonder hill there is an alehouse,
Where my my false love he sets himself down.
He takes another fresh girl on his knee,
Don't you think that's a grief to me.
A grief to me, I tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I.
Her gold might lessen, her beauty will fade,
Then she'll 'come a poor girl like me.
I wish, I wish my baby was born,
And sat upon his daddy's knee.
And that my body was wrapped in cold clay,
With green grass growing all over me.
There is a flower, I've heard people say -
It grows by night and it fades by day,
And if that flower I could find,
I would cure my heart and ease my mind.
So across the field, that poor girl she ran,
Gathering flowers just as they sprang.
Some she picked and some she pulled,
Until she gathered her apron full.
She took them home and made her bed,
She put a snow white pillow in under her head.
She laid down and she closed her eyes,
She closed her eyes no more to rise.