Polly Bawn - Albert (Hants) 1908 Gardiner
[From the George Gardiner Manuscript Collection (GG/1/21/1330)
R. Matteson 2016]
Polly Bawn - sung by Albert Doe of Bartley, Hampshire on December 17, 1908. Collector: G.B. Gardiner,
Johnny went a-fowling with his dog and his gun,
He fowled all day till the night coming on,
So she run for top meet him, oh, the shower for to shun,
And he shot his own darling in the room of a swan.
Straightway to his old father whose lock they was gray,
"Dear father, dear father, I must run away
For her apron throwed round her waist as the evening coming on,
There I shot my own darling as the evening coming on."
"You stay in your own country till your trial comes in,
You shall never be convicted by the laws of this land
Young William fal-le-ral[1] as the evening coming on,
And he shot his own darling in the room of a swan.
All the girls in Kilwany they all be very sad,
To think the flower of this county, Polly Bawn, she is dead,
All the girls in Kilwany standing all in a row
She'll appear in the middle like a fountain of snow.
Curse you, Johnny, for loaning me your gun,
I've shot his own darling, see the deed now I've done."
1. I assume this phrase was forgotten and fal-le-ral is a filler.