The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #157026   Message #3703442
Posted By: Steve Gardham
21-Apr-15 - 05:30 PM
Thread Name: Origins: 'When First Unto This Country' Epigraph?
Subject: RE: Origins: 'When First Unto This Country' Epigraph?
Here's another, a right mixture from the Greig-Duncan Collection.

When first to this country a stranger I came
There was no person knew me, nor yet knew my name,
I was well educated in the days of my youth;
And into good company I was well introduced.
    For she's aye been my ruin, my sad, sad downfall,
    She has got my heart enclosed, like a stone and lime wall.

Like a sheet of white paper, her neck and breast round,
Her body neat and handsome, and her hair hanging down,
She's a pattern to many and an idol to me,
I'd quit my devotion, and follow Mally.

At the foot of yon mountain there runs a clear stream,
It was there I courted Mally, pretty Mally's her name,
Her parents being angry, they caused for to say,
That she was the girlie that carried the sway.

It's not for her money it's her I adore,
So grant me my wish, I'll ask for no more,
Now she's no more my ruin, my sad, sad downfall,
For I've married pretty Mally, who did my heart enthral.

The more discerning among you will recognise bits of 'American Stranger'/'Gra Gael Ma Chroi'/'Streams of Lovely Nancy'.

There are another 11 fragments of the same song with it under the title 'Stone & Lime'. It has a decided Irish flavour, but that may be from the bits of songs that are patched together.