I've been cheating and typed the verses from the Topic CD's booklet: Phoebe Smith: The Oxford Girl Recorded by Peter Kennedy, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 8 July 1956. I fell in love with a Oxford girl, She had dark and a-rolling eyes, And I feeled too shamed to marry her, Her being too young a maid. I went along to her sister's house About eight o'clock that night, Asking her if she'd take a walk Through the fields and meadows gay. And the answer what she gave to me, That laid so far away. I caught fast hold of her lily-white hand And I kissed those cheek and chin, And I had no thoughts of murdering her And hid no evil ways. I pulled the hedgestick all from the hedge And I gently knocked her down, And the blood from that poor innocent girl Come trinkling on the ground. I caught fast hold of her curly, curly locks And I dragged her through the field, Until I came to a deep river side I gently flung'ed her in. Look how she go, look how she flows. She's a-floating by the tide, And, instead of her having a watery grave, She ought to've been my bride. I went alone to my uncle's house About ten o'clock that night, Asking him for a candle To light me up to bed. He answered me and close-questioned me, What had stained my hands in blood? And the answer I gave to him, "I've been bleeding from the nose." It was about three weeks afterwards When that pretty fair maid were found, Come floating down by her own mother's door, One near called Oxford town.
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