"Old Maid in the Garret" was also recorded by Steeleye Span on "TIME" CD. It's one of my favorites of their songs.

THE OLD MAID IN THE GARRETT

Definitely to be taken with a large pinch of salt, this is probably the first (and last) time this song has been sung by women!

I was told by my aunt. I was told by my mother
That going to a wedding is the makings of another.
Well, if this be so, then I'll go without a bidding.
O kind Providence, won't you send me to a wedding.

CHORUS: And it's oh, dear me, how will it be
If I die an old maid in a garret?

Now there's my sister Jean; she's not handsome or good looking.
Scarcely sixteen and a fella she was courting.
Now she's twenty-four. she's a son and a daughter.
Here am I, forty-four, and I've never had an offer. CHORUS

I can cook and I can sew. I can keep a house right tidy,
Rise up in the morning and get the breakfast ready.
There's nothing in this wide world that makes my heart so cheery
As a wee fat man to call me his own deary. CHORUS

So come landsman or come townsman; come tinker or come tailor.
Come fiddler, come dancer, come ploughman or come sailor.
Come rich man, come poor man, come fool or come witty.
Come any man at all. Won't you marry out of pity? CHORUS

They say that the women are worse than the men.
They go down to hell and they're thrown out again.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 2-Jun-02.