The New Zealand poet Mary E Richmond CBE (born Taranaki 1853, died Wellington 1949) seems to have recorded a significantly different version of the folksong Widdicombe Fair while living in Somerset in 1907-08. In her play with music LOST AND FOUND or THE MOTHERLY’S Luck staged in Wellington New Zealand in 1911, Mary E Richmond gives a version of Widdicombe Fair that is obviously independent of the Barington-Gould /Quiller-Couch texts in significant ways. The full stage production papers including music are extant in the Turnbull Library manuscript section at the National Library of New Zealand. Compare the version sung by Bill Westaway. Here is Mary E Richmond’s version.
WIDDICOMBE FAIR Devonshire Song
Jan Pearce, Jan Pearce, will you lend us your mare? All along down along lane and a lee, For to go to Widdicombe Fair With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davie, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.
And when shall I see my old mare again All along down along lane and a lee On Friday night or Saturday morn With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davie, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all. Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.
Oh, Saturdays come and Saturdays gone All along down along lane and a lee, And yet that old mare has never come home, With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davie, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all. Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.
They went to the top of Widdicombe Hill All along down along lane and a lee, There lay the old mare a-making her will, With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davie, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all. Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.
This was not the end of this horrid affair, All along down along lane and a lee For at night you may meet the ghost of that mare With Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davie, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all. Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.
Oh, then you may hear the saddest of moans, All along down along land [sic] and a lee, The mare trotting onward still rattles the bones Of Bill Brewer, Jan Stewer, Peter Gurney, Peter Davie, Dan’l Whiddon, Harry Hawke, Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all. Old Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all.