The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173319   Message #4202851
Posted By: Steve Gardham
23-May-24 - 10:50 AM
Thread Name: Seeking information on song melody- Whitby tailor
Subject: RE: Seeking information on song melody- Whitby tailor
See The Brisk Young Tailor aka The Tailor's Britches on the Yorkshire Garland website yorkshirefolksong.net

There are oddly only 3 versions of the song from tradition. The Whitby version is from Arthur Wood of Littlebeck and Middlesborough and the other 2 are fragments from the south coast collated by Frank Purslow in Marrow Bones. I would have been highly suspicious of the Whitby version no doubt very much enhanced by Arthur himself had it not been recorded from him by Nigel Hudleston well before the Purslow book was published.

The tune appears to be related to a broadside ballad set in Hull also on that website called 'The Bonny Scotch lad and his Bonnet so Blue.'