Lyr Req: Maid of Reigate / Maid of Rygate

Subject: Lyr Req: The maid of reigate
From: ruairiobroin
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 09:18 AM

I heard this son about thirty years ago and promised myself I'd learn it Now can't remember where I heard it and have time to learn it . Please please any info and lyrics would be great Thanks R

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The maid of reigate
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 10:50 AM

If it the right song, it's a version of The Highwayman Outwitted and appeared in Logan's A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs, 1869, as The Maid of Rygate in 16 or so verses (Near Rygate there lived a farmer/Whose daughter to market would go/Not fearing that any would harm her/For often she rode to and fro).

I'm busy at the moment, but I'll try and put the words up later.

Mick

Subject: Lyr Add: THE MAID OF RYGATE
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 12:49 PM

Here's the version from Logan. The song was recorded by Ewan MacColl on Solo Flight and I imagine that was the version you heard. Perhaps if someone has that they could post his version. Logan gives no tune, so I assume MacColl wrote his own tune or possibly adapted a tune from one of the other versions of the song.

Mick

---

^^
The Maid Of Rygate

Near Rygate there lived a farmer,
Whose daughter to market would go,
Not fearing that any would harm her,
For often she rode to and fro.

It fell one time amongst many,
A great store of corn she sold,
She having received the penny
In shillings, and guineas, and gold.

She rode a little way farther,
But, dreading some danger to find,
She sewed it up in her saddle,
Which was with the leather well lined.

She riding a little way farther,
She met a thief on the highway,
A robber apparelled, well mounted,
Who soon did oblige her to stay.

Three blows then he presently gave her,
Load pistold he held to her breast,
Your money this moment deliver,
Or else you shall die I protest.

This maiden was sorely affrighted,
And so was poor Doby the steed,
When down off his back she alighted
He quickly ran home with great speed.

Then this damsel he stripped nearly naked,
And he gave her some sorrowful blows,
Says, "girl you must patiently take it;
I'll have both your money and clothes."

The thief up his bundle was making,
His horse he obliged her to hold;
The poor girl stood trembling and shaking,
As though she would perish with cold.

The thief up his bundle was making
And being rejoiced at his prize,
Says, "Yourself I shall shortly be taking,
As part of my baggage likewise."

The girl while she held fast the bridle,
Was beginning to grow more afraid.
Says she, "it's in vain to be idle,
I'll show you the trick of a maid."

Then up on the saddle she mounted,
Just as if she had beeen a young man,
As while on his money she counted,
"Pray follow me, Sir, if you can."

The rogue in a passion he flew,
He cursed her, he swears, and he blows,
At length his words were, "hallo!
Stay girl! and I'll give you your clothes."

She says, "that's not so much matter,
You make keep them, kind sir, if you please;"
He runs but he could not get at her,
His boots they so hampered his knees.

She rode over hedges and ditches,
The way home she knew very well,
She left his a parcel of farthings,
The sum of five shillings to tell.

This maiden was sorely benighted
From seven till twelve of the clock,
Her father was sorely affrighted
To see her come stripped to her smock.

"O daughter, the matter come tell me,
And how you have tarried so long?"
She says, "some hard fortune befel me,
But I have received no wrong."

They ended their sorrow with joy,
When in his portmanteau was found,
In a bundle a great sum of money,
In all about eight hundred pound.

O! was not this rare of a maiden,
Who was in great danger of life?
With riches she's now overladen,
No doubt she will make a good wife.


Source: Logan: A Pedlar's Pack of Ballads and Songs, 1869.


His notes say: The chief incident in this ballad is similar to that of the two preceding. It appears to have been exceedingly popular throughout England long after the time when the school of romantic Highwaymen had ceased to exist. While on the subject, it may be observed that probably the best drawn portraiture of a Highwayman of that class which has been depicted, either in Play or Romance, will be found in the character called Colonel Lutwych, in G.P.R.James' excellent novel of Sir Theodore Broughton.

(The two preceding were The Crafty Farmer and The Yorkshire Bite - MCP)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The maid of reigate
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 01:33 PM

A version of The Highwayman Outwitted by the Farmer's Daughter, 1802-1819, is in the Bodleian Collection, Ballads Catalogue 2806c. 18(142).
The version in Logan posted by Mick Pearce is superior.

Several other printings of the song are in the Bodleian Collection.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The maid of reigate
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 01:42 PM

Child, in his discussion of no. 283, cites the ballad of the Norfolk, Rygate or Cheshire farmer's daughter as similar.

I have a recording of Clive Woolf (with guitar, before he was struck down) singing a version with a 9/8 tune. I've just asked him where he got it. Without going to check, he thinks it was based on a version collected by Kidson, with possibly a verse or two grafted in from another version.

I can transcribe Clive's words if anyone desperately wants them.

Richard

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The maid of reigate
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 01:46 PM

Maybe not desperately, but his lyrics would be much appreciated.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The maid of reigate
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 02:11 PM

My copy of Roud lists 57 versions of the song, but only the Logan one has Reigate (or Rygate as he has it). (Still assuming this is the song wanted!).

(Richard - I've still got an old small reel to reel of Clive singing at Eston FC back in the 70s. I keep meaning to convert it to some modern medium. He was a good guitarist and a sad loss the the folk scene when he could no longer play).

Mick

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The maid of reigate
From: ruairiobroin
Date: 19 Feb 10 - 03:52 PM

Thank all you folkies . Mick you are a gent, I have a sneaking feeling I bought that E MacColl Album for my late Mam back in the seventies and may well be able to lay my hands on the LP. Now to learn the song. It's a beauty and i'm surprised it's not that common in sessions.
I seem to remember the last verse as

So all you young girls who go riding
Who's life is in danger or worse,
Be sure that you're always well mounted
And you'll never lack a full purse.

Thanks again folks..... I've just sort of retired and may well be chasing stuff up again and if I can be of help it'll be a pleasure

Subject: Lyr Add: THE CRAFTY FARMER'S DAUGHTER
From: Richard Mellish
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 07:43 AM

For Q and anyone else interested:

THE CRAFTY FARMER'S DAUGHTER, as sung by Clive Woolf.
He still sings it, but this transcription is from his singing at Dingle's on 9th January 1974.

In Cheshire there lived a rich farmer.
To market his daughter would go.
Not thinking that any should harm her.
She'd been that way often before.

She was met by a ruffian robber.
That caused the young woman to stand.
"Your money and gold now deliver,
Or else your sweet life is at hand."

How he strippéd this fair damsel naked
And he gave her his bridle to hold,
Where she stood there a shivering and shaking,
Near starving* to death with the cold.

She put her left foot in the stirrup.
She mounted the horse like a man.
Over hedges and ditches she galloped,
Crying "Catch me bold rogue if you can."

That bold rogue he soon followed after,
Which caused him to puff and to blow.
Thank God that he never did catch her
Till she came to her father's own door.

"Oh daughter, dear daughter, what's happened?"
"Oh father, to you I will tell.
I was met by a ruffian robber.
Thank God he has done me no harm."

Put the grey mare into the stable
And spread the white sheet on the floor.
Well she stood there a-counting the money.
She counted five thousand or more.

*This usage of "starve" is consistent with this version being from Yorkshire, where it has the specific sense of dying, or being close to death, from cold rather than from hunger.

I must correct my statement about a 9/8 tune. It's four bars of 3/8 per line.

Richard

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: The maid of reigate
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Feb 10 - 01:32 PM

Richard, many thanks. A nice addition to mudcat.