Searching our database and forum, what I come up with is Banks of Allan Water. Could that be the one?
BANKS OF ALLAN WATER (Digital Tradition)
By the banks of Allan Water
When the sweet springtime did fall
There I saw the miller's lovely daughter
Fairest of them all
For his wife, a soldier sought her
And a winning tongue had he
On the banks of Allan Water, none so gay as she
On the banks of Allan Water
When brown autumn spread its store
There I saw the miller's daughter
But she smiled no more
For the summer, grief had brought her
And a soldier false was he
On the banks of Allan Water, none so sad as she
On the banks of Allan Water
When the winter snow fell fast
Still was seen the miller's daughter
Chilling blew the blast
But the miller's lovely daughter
Both from cold and care were free
On the banks of Allan Water
A corpse lay she
@death @courtship
by Monk Lewis
filename[ ALANWATR
TUNE FILE: ALANWATR
CLICK TO PLAY
printed in Cole's Folk Songs of England, Ireland, Scotland &
Wales
SOF
Here's the Traditional Ballad Index entry on this song:Banks of Allan Water, The
DESCRIPTION: "By the banks of Allan Water When the sweet springtime did fall, There I saw the miller's lovely daughter, Fairest of them all." By autumn, the girl has been betrayed by her soldier love and grieves; by winter, she is dead
AUTHOR: Matthew Lewis (1775-1818) ?
EARLIEST DATE: c.1850? (broadside, NLScotland Crawford EB 2836); 1896 (Family Star & Herald)
KEYWORDS: love courting soldier betrayal death
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (1 citation):
DT, ALANWATR*
Roud #4260
RECORDINGS:
Daisy Chapman, "The Banks of Allen Water" (on SCDChapman01)
BROADSIDES:
NLScotland, Crawford EB 2836, "The Banks of Allan Water," G. Walker (Durham), ca.1850?; L.C.Fol.70(98b), "On the Banks of Allan Water," [same broadside as RB.m.143(211)]
SAME TUNE:
Sheridan's "Early" Victory ("In the Shenandoah Valley") (WolfAmericanSongSheets p. 140)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Allan Water
The Miller's Daughter
NOTES [95 words]: Quoted by Hardy in Far from the Madding Crowd (1874), sung by Bathsheba Everdene.
Robert Crawford (died 1733) also wrote a song called "Allan Water," which is considered one of his best works. But this song has little if any traditional attestation. It is only of note because Robert Burns admired author Crawford, whose works were found in Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany attributed to "C" (see Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Editors, British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary, H. W. Wilson, 1952 (I use the fourth printing of 1965), p. 129). - RBW
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