The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #74494 Message #3949133
Posted By: Reinhard
09-Sep-18 - 03:42 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Step it out, Mary, my fine daughter
Subject: RE: Origins: Step it out, Mary, my fine daughter
The Norfolk Broads sang Step It Out Mary set in Norfolk (Castle Rising, Downham Market) but with the Williams/Clark story ending, on their 2017 CD In the Valley of the Flowers:
In the town of Castle Rising there's a maiden fine and fair, Her eyes they shone like diamonds, she had long and golden hair. Then a country man came riding, he came to her father's door, Mounted on a milk white pony, he came at the stroke of four.
Chorus (after each verse): Step it out, Mary, my fine daughter Step it out, Mary, if you can Step it out, Mary, my fine daughter Cock your leg for the country man
I have come to court your daughter, Mary of the golden hair, I've gold and I have silver, I have lands beyond compare. I will buy her silks and satins and a gold ring for her hand, I will build for her a mansion, she'll have servants to command.
Can't you see I love another, I have promised him my hand, I don't want your gold nor silver, I don't want your house nor land. Then up spoke her father sharply, you shall do as I command! And you'll send the young man hither with a rifle in his hand.
He came back from Downham Market, on his pony was a sack, And the body of her lover it was slung across the back. In the town of Castle Rising you can her her father say, Step it out, Mary, my fine daughter, Sunday is your wedding day.
Then poor Mary cried in anguish, she wept loud and tore her hair; Slipped into her father's chamber, found a pistol lying there. On the Sunday came the wedding, all the town's folk gathered by; They saw Mary pulled the trigger for the country man must die.
Mary said, I am not sorry, when the jury heard her tale, Though he rots beneath she soil and now I shall rot in gaol. There inside the crowded courtroom, twelve good people took their stand, Said, we will not hold you, Mary, for the killing of a country man.