A version from Hampshire

Tim Radford

THE DROWNED LOVER.
As I was a walking down by the sea shore,
Where the wind and the waves and the billows did roar,
I heard a shrill voice make a sorrowful sound,
Midst the wind and the waves and the waters all round.
- Crying, Oh! My love is gone he's the lad I adore,
- He's gone and I never, no never,
- Shall see my love more.

She was dressed like some Goddess, she looked like some queen,
She's the fairest of women that my eyes e'er had seen,
I told her I'd marry her myself if she pleased,
But the answer she gave was my love's on the seas.

I never will marry nor be no mans bride,
For I mean to live single all the days of my life,
It's the loss of my sailor I deeply deplore
He's lost in the seas, I shan't see him no more.

The shells of the ocean shall be my last bed,
The fish of the seas shall swim over my head.
She plunged her fair body right into the deep,
And closed her fair eyes in the waters to sleep.


James Lake - Dummer, Basingstoke Aug 1906 (H474)
- According to Purslow. All of Lake's other songs were local church "carols".
His version of the song originally included one or two of the later "comic" music hall additional verses (incl. Oysters and shrimp!), which Purslow has removed to reveal the serious song.