The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #173439 Message #4205922
Posted By: Steve Gardham
23-Jul-24 - 12:41 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Lowlands of Holland in Suffolk
Subject: RE: Origins: Lowlands of Holland in Suffolk
I have no record of this version anywhere, or indeed anything like the 3rd stanza. The 4th stanza is almost verbatim the first stanza in Johnson & Burns Scottish Musical Museum 1787-1803 which Burns could well have had a hand in.
Stanza 3 the first 2 lines occur nowhere else and sound pretty daft anyway. The third line occurs in a different form in other versions and the 4th line is common to most versions. The fact that no ships are mentioned presume he is being dragooned into the army, whereas all other traditional and broadside versions mention being pressed by a sea captain.
However there is good evidence that the ballad has been rewritten several times. Logan in his Pedlar's Pack gives a long version with only the first stanza traditional and this came from a newspaper of 1859.