The Brown Girl- Campbell (VA) 1916 Sharp H
[My title. From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians collected by Cecil J. Sharp and Olive Dame Campbell- Volume I; 1917 edition and 1932 edition edited by Maud Karpeles. The 1932 edition notes follow. The last 3 stanzas were supplied by Davis, TBVa 1929.
R. Matteson 2014]
No. 19. Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor.
Texts without tunes:—Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, No. 73. Broadside by Catnach. C. S. Burners Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 545. A. Williams's Folk Songs of the Upper Thames, p. 135. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xix. 235; xx. 254; xxviii. 152; xxxix. 94. Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 45 (see also further references).
Texts with tunes:—Kidson's Traditional Tunes, p. 40. English County Songs, p. 42. E. M. Leather's Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, p. 200. Sandys's Christmas Carols, tune 18. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, ii. 105; v. 130. Rimbault's Musical Illustrations of Percy's Reliques, p. 94. C. Sharp's English Folk Songs (Selected Edition), ii. 27 (also published in One Hundred English Folk Songs, No.28). Gavin Greig's Last Leaves, No. 28. Scots Musical Museum, vi, No. 535. Reed Smith's South Carolina Ballads, No. 6. Wyman and Brockway's Twenty Kentucky Songs, p. 14. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xviii. 128. British Ballads from Maine, p. 128, Davis's Traditional Ballads of Virginia, pp. 191 and 568. McGill's Folk Songs of the Kentucky Mountains, p. 28. Sandburg's American Songbag, p. 156.
H. The Brown Girl- Sung by Mrs. Kate Campbell, Woodbridge Virginia, Albemarle County Sept. 28, 1916.
"O mother, O mother, O mother," says he,
"Pray tell your willing mind;
Whether I must marry fair Ellington,
Or bring the brown girl home."
"The brown girl she has house and land,
Fair Ellington she has none;
If I must charge you with all my heart,
Go bring the brown girl home."
He rode up to fair Ellington's house,
And loudly at the ring.
And none was so ready as Ellington
As to rise and welcome him in.
"Good news, good news, good news, good news,
Good news I bring to thee;
I've come to invite you unto my wedding,
Unto my wedding day."