Over Yonder’s Hill- Jean Orchard (Dev) c.1980
[My date, not sure when Jean learned this. From the Veteran recording 'Holsworthy Fair,' VT151CD, 2005. Jean Orchard is Amy Birch's daughter, both learned the song with slight differences from Amy's mother, Dehlia Crocker, who kept a notebook with her songs.
Liner notes follow. The "Down in the Meadow" stanza mentioned in the liner notes is missing from one of Amy's recordings titled "Over Yonder's Hill" and is also missing in Jean's version. It usually goes: "Down in the meadows the lady run/Picking flowers as they sprung/etc." The "Down in the Meadow" stanza is the penultimate stanza here.
The last three stanzas are from Constant Lady.
R. Matteson 2017]
Holsworthy is to be found in North Devon, where the Orchard family are now settled. Tom and Jean are both Gypsies, with a long and strong family tradition of singing, playing and step-dancing. Here, joined by their son Ashley, they bring together songs and music from a variety of sources; unconcerned with putting labels on them, more rightly choosing material which they have enjoyed within their family, and are now sharing with the rest of us.
Jean learned this song from her from her grandmother Dehlia Crocker. It is often called Down in the Meadow and it was under this title that it was recorded from Jean’s mother Amy Birch by Sam Richards, Paul Wilson and Tish Stubbs. That recording can be heard on Topic TSCD661 ‘My Father is the King of the Gypsies’ under the title Over Yonder’s Hill. This was a popular song all over England, with 252 entries in the Roud folk song index. It was particularly widespread within the Gypsy communities and another version can be heard on TSCD661 sung by Surrey /Kent traveller Jasper Smith. As with this version his contains a number of floating verses from other songs which are added at will.
Over Yonder’s Hill - sung by Jean Orchard, learned from her grandmother,
Over yonder’s hill there is an old house
Where my true love goes and sits himself down
Takes another fresh girl on his knee
Now don’t you think that’s a grief to me?
A grief a grief I’ll tell you for why
Because she has more gold than I
Gold may glitter and silver may shine
And all my sorrows will fade in time
I wish the Lord my baby was born
And sat smiling in his own daddy’s arms
And me poor girl wrapped up in cold clay
Then all my sorrows would fade away
There is a flower I have heard people say
They grow by night and fade by day
Now if that flower I could find
It would cure my heart and ease my mind
So across the fields 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 takes them home and she makes her bed
She puts a snow white pillow in under her head
She lies down and closed her eyes
Closed her eyes no more for to rise.