The Traditional Ballad Index doesn't have anything for Roud 2733. Their listing for "Down by the Seaside" is Roud 1712. Looking at Roud 1712, it first appeared that George Maynard of Sussex was the only source (recorded by Peter Kennedy), although I found a very nice recording by Shirley Collins on The Folk Collection CD. Helen Creighton also found the song in Nova Scotia, and included it in Maritime Folk Songs. Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry for Roud 1712, which does not seem to be a broken token song:

Down by the Seaside

DESCRIPTION: Singer meets young woman and asks her to walk with him. She declines; she's searching for her true love. Looking through an opera glass, she spies his ship; hearing that he has been shot, she despairs; if he died for honor, she will die for love
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1956 (recorded from George Maynard)
KEYWORDS: grief virtue love separation death ship lover sailor
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South))
Roud #1712
RECORDINGS:
George Maynard, "Down By the Seaside" (on Maynard1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "John (George) Riley (I)" (part of plot, lyrics) and cross-references there
cf. "Susan Strayed on the Briny Beach [Laws K19]" (plot)
NOTES: This is a conundrum; it starts out as a classic John-Riley-lover-in-disguise ballad, but halfway through does not take the usual sharp turn of revealing the stranger to be the lover returned. Instead, it proceeds in a straight line to the young man's death and the woman's bereavement. - PJS
File: RcDBTSS

---

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography

The Ballad Index Copyright 2015 by Robert B. Waltz and David G. Engle.