Elsie Marley

Elsie Marley - Alice Marley the wife of the innkeeper at Picktree. (South of the Washington village of Rickleton, close to the edge of the motorway near Chester le Street) She was very popular with her customers !. In old age she was confined to bed with a terrible illness, and became completely delirious. She escaped unnoticed from her sick bed one night. `Elsie' ran across a field nearby. She fell into a disused coalpit and drowned. The inn where Elsie worked is no longer standing. In: Elsie Marley among other things she does she wears a velvet cap where once she had a straw hat. (Source- My page of Newcastle persons mentioned in song- always under construction and a long ways to go! http://share.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5863/gpersons.html )

chorus: Di' ye ken Elsie Marley, honey
The wife that sells the barley,honey
She lost her pocket and all her money
A-back o' the bush in the garden, honey

Elsie Marley's grown so fine
She won't get up to serve the swine
But lies in bed till eight or nine
And surely she does take her time.

Elsie Marley is so neat
It's hard for one to walk the street
But every lad and lass they meet
Cries "Di' ye ken Elsie Marley, honey?"

Elsie Marley wore a straw hat
But now she's getten a velvet cap
The Lambton lads mun pay for that
Di' ye ken Elsie Marley, honey?

Elsie keeps rum, gin and ale
In her house below the dale
Where every tradesman, up and down
Does call and spend his half-a-crown.

The farmers as they cum that way
They drink with Elsie every day
And call the fiddler for to play
The tune of Elsie Marley, honey.

The pitmen and the keelmen trim
They drink Bumbo made of gin
And for to dance they do begin
To the tune of Elsie Marley, honey.

The sailors they do call for flip
As soon as they come from the ship
And then begin to dance and skip
to the tune of "Elsie Marley," honey.

Those gentlemen who go so fine
They'll treat her with a bottle of wine
And freely they'll sit down and dine
Along with Elsie Marley, honey.

So to conclude those lines I've penn'd
Hoping there's none I do offend
And thus my merry joke does end
Concerning Elsie Marley, honey.

from Songs of Northern England, Stokoe
Note: mentioned in Byker Hill ^^^

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Please don't copy songs from the Digital Tradition and post them in the Forum. I spent a good long time fooling with these lyrics for harvesting before I found out we already had this exact version. If posting the lyrics helps the discussion, then it's fine to post them - but be sure to include a note that the song is already in the database.
-Joe Offer-