Hello all,

I'm looking for the title of this song I recently learned: If you know alternate versions, or the origins and approx. age of this song, please let me know!

Thanks a lot,

Mad Maudlin

It fell out upon one Martinmas time
When snow lay on the border,
There came a troop of soldiers here
To take up their winter quarter.

Oh they rode high and they rode low,
They rode across the border,
And there they met with a nice little girl
And she was a farmer's daughter.

They made her swear a solemn oath
With the salt tear in her eye-o,
That she would come to the quarter-gates
When no one could her spy-o.

And she's gone to the barber's shop,
To the barber's shop so soon-o,
She's made them cut her long yellow hair
As short as any dragoon-o.

And she has gone to the tailor's shop
And dresses in soldiers' clothes-o,
Two long pistols down by her side,
A pretty little boy was she-o.

And she has gone to the quarter-gates
And loudly she does call-o:
"There comes a troop of soldiers here,
And we must have lodgings all-o."

The quartermaster he came down,
He gave her half a crown-o:
"Go find your lodgings in the town,
For here there is no room-o."

But she's come nearer to the gates,
And loudly she does call-o:
"Open the gates, ye gentlemen,
We must have lodgings all-o."

The quartermaster he's come down,
He gave her eighteen pence-o:
"Go find your lodgings in the town,
Tonight there comes a wench-o."

She took the whistle from her side,
She blew it loud and shrill-o.
"You're so very free with your eighteen pence,
You're not for a girl at all-o."

She took the garters from her knee,
The ribbons from her hair-o,
She tied them round the quarter-gates
As a token she'd been there-o.

When they found out it had been her
They tried to have her taken
But she clapped her spurs to her horse's side
And galloped home a maiden.