Nick Dow wrote, The Hammonds found it in Dorset, and dismissed it as 'not Folk'.
They're right by origin, not right by transmission count. :-) It's by W. Upton and W. T. Parke, and was in existence by 1830; there are many broadsides. Here is the Ballad Index entry. Note the myriad Roud Index entries -- though about three-fourths of them have no informant supplied and are broadsides or versions transmitted entirely by print.
Garden Gate, The
DESCRIPTION: Mary and William have planned a secret meeting. She arrives at the garden gate at eight; William is not there. Nine comes; she searches, then vows to forsake him. He finally arrives at ten; he had been shopping for a ring. She forgives him
AUTHOR: W. Upton and W T. Parke (source: Sabine Baring-Gould, English Minstrelsy, according to Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs)
EARLIEST DATE: 1846 (Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland); before 1830 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 25(709))
KEYWORDS: courting nightvisit separation marriage
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(MW) Ireland
REFERENCES (14 citations):
Dixon-AncientPoemsBalladsSongsOfThePeasantryOfEngland, Song #32, pp. 226-227, "The Garden Gate" (1 text)
Bell-Combined-EarlyBallads-CustomsBalladsSongsPeasantryEngland, pp. 441-443, "The Garden-Gate" (1 text)
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #124, p. 2, "The Garden Gate" (1 text)
Greig/Duncan5 981, "The Garden Gate" (9 texts, 4 tunes)
Broadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. 72-73, "The Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 577, "Garden Gate" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #20, "The Old Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #25, "The Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H770, p. 485, "The Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Eddy-BalladsAndSongsFromOhio 78, "The Garden Gate" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Belden/Hudson-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore3 319, "The Garden Gate" (1 fragment, in which the girl tells her mother she is going to the garden gate; it may be a separate song, but with only four lines, we cannot tell )
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore5 319, "The Garden Gate" (1 tune plus the short text)
Forget-Me-Not-Songster, p. 139, "Garden Gate" (1 text), plus the "nswer to Garden Gate" on p. 140
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #715, p. 47, "The Garden Gate" (1 reference)
ST E078 (Partial)
Roud #418
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 25(709), "The Garden Gate" ("The day was spent, the moon shone bright"), T. Birt (London), 1828-1829; also Harding B 17(105b), Harding B 11(87), Harding B 18(190), Firth c.14(180), Firth b.26(368), Firth b.25(187), Harding B 11(1292), Harding B 11(3454), Firth b.25(272), "The Garden Gate"
LOCSheet, sm1885 01480, "The Garden Gate," Geo. D Newhall (Cincinnati), 1885 (tune) ["composed by Jerome Hill"]
LOCSinging, sb20158b, "The Garden Gate" ("The day was clos'd, the moon shone bright"), H. De Marsan (New York), 1859-1878; also as104220, "The Garden Gate" ("The day was spent, the moon shone bright")
NOTES [117 words]: See also Bodleian, Harding B 11(87), "Answer to The Garden Gate" ("One wintry eve the moon it shone"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 25(71)[some words illegible], Firth b.26(368), Harding B 11(1292), "Answer to The Garden Gate." [In the "Answer," Mary hides when William arrives, to test whether he is true. It's not really an answer; rather, the two pieces tell the story from different perspectives. - RBW]
Broadside LOCSinging sb20158b: H. De Marsan dating per Studying Nineteenth-Century Popular Song by Paul Charosh in American Music, Winter 1997, Vol 15.4, Table 1, available at FindArticles site.
Broadsides LOCSinging sb20158b and Bodleian Harding B 18(190) are duplicates. - BS
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