US & Canada Versions: 8C. On a Mountain Stands a Lady; Roud 2603; "There Stands a Lady" (Sharp); "There Stands a Lady on the Mountain;" "Yonder Stands a Lovely Lady;" "There She Stands a Lovely Creature;" "Lady on the Mountain" (Opie); "Lady on Yonder Hill;"
[In the United States and Canada, the first versions collected and published were of the nursery rhyme game song variety with stanzas of 8. Madam, I Am Come to Court You. In 1883 "There She Stands, a Lovely Creature" a New York version was published by W.W. Newel (Games and songs of American children) who said, "This pretty song has been recited to us by informants of the most cultivated class, and, on the other hand, we have seen it played as a round by the very "Arabs of the street," in words identically the same. It is an old English song, which has been fitted for a ring-game by the composition of an additional verse, to allow the selection of a partner."
Both A and B do not have the "On a Mountain Stands a Lady" opening and have the standard "gold and silver" stanza. Beside the versions of B from 1886 onward, a partial text was published in the fictional work "In Noman's Land- a Wonder Story" by Elridge S. Brooks. It appears in "Wide Awake, Volumes 18-19," published D. Lothrop and Co. (Boston) in 1884 (see Google Books online). Here's an excerpt:
CHAPTER IX. HOW ALL THE LITTLE MAIDENS DANCED ON THE GREEN GRAVEL.
And standing before the Governor's Daughter and the goat, while the squirrel stood ready to drop the golden saucer and run at the first sign of danger, Ruthie waited for the approach of the Knight out of Spain.
He came riding rapidly towards her and with a low bow said,
Madam, I have gold and silver,
Madam, I have house and land,
Madam, I have ships on the ocean,
All of them at your command.
But Ruthie, waving her hand haughtily, replied,
I want none of your gold and silver,
I want none of your house and land,
I want none of your ships on the ocean,
All I want is a nice young man.
At this the Knight out of Spain whirled his horse around, and shaking his spear, he sang out to his retinue: "Come, Philanders, let us be a-marching," and at the head of his followers he charged furiously at Ruthie and her company of little maidens.
These stanzas approximate versions of B as found in "Here she stands, a lovely creature," sung by Washington children as published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, Volume 37, 1886; "Song Games and Myth Dramas at Washington," by W. H. Babcock. In 1909 F. W. Waugh reported a version of B titled, "A Spanish Lady," from Colborne, Ontario Dec. 11, 1909, which he supposes to be Irish.
In the 1914 book, "The Joyous Book of Singing Games," by John Hornby published by MacMillian Co., NY comes the first extant standard text of the skipping game, my F, which became popular in the mid-1900s.
ON A MOUNTAIN STANDS A LADY
On a mountain stands a lady;
Who she is I do not know.
She has lots of gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young .
So come in my (Jennie) dear,
(Jennie) dear, (Jennie) dear,
So come in my (Jennie) dear,
while I go out to play.
Collected evidence of C and G, the children's game songs with standard "Here Stands a Lady" or "On a Mountain" openings, would be lacking in North America until the 1930s when a version with an unusual opening was published in the New Yorker in 1937 and reprinted by B.A. Botkin in his "A Treasury of American Folklore," New York, 1944[2].
Happy Hooligan, number nine,
Hung his breeches on the line;
When the line began to swing,
Happy Hooligan began to sing:
"On the mountain stands a lady,
Who she is I do not know;
All she wants is gold and silver,
And a nice young man.
As pointed out by Nigel G.N. Kelsey in his 1985 article, "The Lady on the Mountain: A Century of Play Rhyme Tradition," the first stanza (Happy Hooligan) is a version of:
What's the time? Half past nine,
Hang your knickers on the line.
When a copper comes along
Hurry up and put them on[1].
About the time Botkin's published this version, a number of skipping (jump-rope) versions were collected in the US which certainly date back to the late 1800s. A one stanza version collected from Lola Kennedy of West Virginia appeared in issue 7 of Hoosier Folklore, 1948:
19. On a hill there lives a lady,
Who she is I do not know.
All she wants is a golden slipper,
All she wants is a fine young man.
Although "silver" has been corrupted to "slipper," this skipping game was also collected in West Virginia again (1953) and in Virginia (1945). A version of E, the children's game songs with standard "Here Stands a Lady" opening that are composites of "Madam Will you Walk (Keys of Heaven)," was published in his "Singing Games and Playparty Games" by Richard Chase but Chase's version is surely derived from Sharp's and is not local. No versions of the composite with "Madam will you walk," my E, appear to have survived in North America and only a few were collected in England in the early 1900s.
The skipping game, my G, was also known in Canada. Here's a version from northern Canada in the 1960s posted at Mudcat:
For skipping we would sing:
On a mountain stands a lady
Who she is I do not know
All she wants is gold and silver
All she wants is ice and snow
So come in my lady, lady, lady
So come in my lady,
While I go out to tea.
(this was an invitation for one girl to skip in and take the rope and the other girl to skip out).
The skipping game was known in Canada and in the US from California to Michigan to the Appalachians. It's safe to assume that it was a well-known skipping song but overlooked by most collectors. The skipping songs seem to be of a modern (early 1900s) vintage and as proof I offer this example: No version of "Lady on the Mountain" was secured by Cecil Sharp during his 1916-1918 trip to the the Appalachians. My conclusion is that the children's song was brought to North America from the UK by the late 1800s and that the skipping song versions followed shortly thereafter (early 1900s).
Curiously, On a Mountain Stands a Lady was performed on TV in episode 1327 of Mister Rogers Neighborhood (1974) as sung by Neighborhood Sweethearts on stage. Only a few examples of traditional versions from North America are presented here. A number of new recordings are available on youtube and web-sites.
R. Matteson 2017]
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Footnotes:
1. Info from "The Lady on the Mountain: A Century of Play Rhyme Tradition" by Nigel G.N. Kelsey, 1985.
2. Since I have access to neither book, I'm uncertain of their source of "Happy Hooligan."
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CONTENTS: (Individual versions may be accessed by clicking on the highlighted title below or by clicking on the title attached to this page on the left hand column)
1) There She Stands a Lovely Creature (NY)1883 Newell
2) Here She Stands a Lovely Creature (DC)1886 Babcock
3) Here Stands a Lovely Creature- (NY) 1890 Pollard
A Spanish Lady- anon (ON) 1909 Waugh JAF
On a Mountain Stands a Lady- (NY) 1914 Hornby
Happy Hooligan- (NY) 1937 The New Yorker
On a Hillside Stands a Lady- (CA) c.1940 Browne
On the Mountain Stands a Lady- Stone (MI) c.1945
On a Hill There Lives a Lady- Kennedy (WV) 1948
On a Mountain- East York Children (ON) 1959 Fowke
On the Mountain Stands a Lady- (NJ) 1959 Farina
On a Mountain Stands a Lady- (N. Can) 1965
On a Mountain Stands a Lady- (MI) 1968 Callow A
On a Mountain- (MI) 1968 Callow B
Jump-Rope Rhyme- (MI) 1969 Callow C
On the Mountain- Ogmundson (BC) c.1970
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On a Mountain Stands a Lady
Roud Folksong Index (S276244)
First Line: On a mountain stands a lady
Source: Hornby, The Joyous Book of Singing Games (c1913) pp.40-41
The Joyous Book of Singing Games: MacMillian Co, NY
John Hornby - 1914 -
Collected and Arranged with Pianoforte Accompaniments John Hornby. ON A MOUNTAIN STANDS A LADY (continued).
On a mountain stands a lady ;
Who she is I do not know.
She has lots of gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young .
So come in my (Jennie) dear,
(Jennie) dear, (Jennie) dear,
So come in my (Jennie) dear,
while I go out to play.
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For skipping we would sing (in the 1960s in northern Canada)
On a Mtn stands a lady
Who she is I do not know
All she wants is gold and silver
All she wants is ice and snow
So come in my lady, lady, lady
So come in my lady,
While I go out to tea
(this was an invitation for one girl to skip in and take the rope and the other girl to skip out)
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Jump-rope Rhymes: A Dictionary
By Roger D. Abrahams
[list] see Google Books
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Southern California Jump-Rope Rhymes: A Study in Variants
by Ray B. Browne
from Western Folklore,
Vol. 14, No. 1 (Jan., 1955), pp. 3-22
" These rhymes were given me largely by my wife, Olwyn Orde Browne, who got them some fifteen years ago in Eagle Rock; others came from the following persons: Mrs. Leonard Mikules, who obtained them from pupils at the UCLA University Elementary School; Miss Imelda McNamee, Altadena; Miss Andyce Orde, Eagle Rock, who heard them ten years ago; Mrs. Dorothy Mitchell, Los Angeles
On the Mountain
Roud Folksong Index (S275951)
First Line: On the mountain stands a lady
Source: Cosbey, All in Together Girls (1980) p.85
Performer:
Date: 1972-1978
Place: Canada : Saskatchewan : Regina
Collector: Cosbey, Robert C.
On a Mountain Stands a Lady
Roud Folksong Index (S263274)
First Line:
Source: Library of Congress recording 3625 B1
Performer: Nidleman, Beatrice
Date: 1938
Place: USA : New York
Collector: Halpert, Herbert
Roud No: 2603
On the Mountain Stands a Lady
Roud Folksong Index (S263298)
First Line:
Source: Library of Congress recording 3650 A1
Performer: Girls skipping
Date: 1939
Place: USA : New York
Collector: Halpert, Herbert
Roud No: 2603
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Songs and rhymes from Canada
We did the ball in stocking game, but I remember singing 'On the Mountain Stands a Lady' to it. . ." -Heather
"A rubber ball was inserted into a woman's single stocking. You would find a wide wall and with your back against it you would outstretch your arm and horizontally move the stocking from side to side while singing a song." -Pam
On the Mountain Stands a Lady
Children's Song
On the mountain stands a lady
Who she is I do not know.
All she wants is gold and silver.
All she needs is a nice young man.
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