The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #66740   Message #2174846
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
19-Oct-07 - 06:45 PM
Thread Name: Folklore: Van Diemen's Land
Subject: RE: Folklore: Van Dieman's Land
MacColl and The Young Tradition both used Harry Cox's set of 'Young Henry', which, unusually, omits the refrain.

Your first text is 'Young Henry the Poacher', noted by Vaughan Williams from Mr Anderson of Great Yarmouth in 1905. He too omitted the refrain. RVW wrote down the first verse only; the rest, as you quote it, is from Roy Palmer, Bushes and Briers: Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 91-2, where the rest is added from a broadside by Pitts (who did include the refrain). See Palmer's comments on variations in place names.

Your second text is 'Van Diemen's Land'; as I've pointed out, a separate song. An identical set of words is already in the DT: VAN DIEMEN'S LAND (see links above). No source is acknowledged, but it looks like the Irish localisation in Colm O Lochlainn, Irish Street Ballads 42-3, with several verses omitted and 'twenty' changed to 'fourteen'.

Given that the DT provides no information, it might have come from anywhere. Do you remember where you got it?