Origins: Snows They Melt - maidmusic.com

Subject: Origins: Snows They Melt - maidmusic.com
From: GUEST,John H. Wilson
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 07:23 AM

I put a link on my website to the story of Thomas Doubleday and The Snows they Melt the Soonest and the alleged 'Josiah Shufflebotham'. The story was neatly told on http://maidmusic.com/snows.html and credited Malcolm Douglas and Mudcat. However this url now brings up a 404 message 'not on this server'.
I've come to Mudcat to see if I can find the original but have only found fragments in threads.
Malcolm Douglas is quoted referring to Blackwood's magazine, Nov 1821 p443. Could some one be so kind as to point me to the full article.
Many thanks, John Wilson

Subject: RE: Origins: Snows They Melt - maidmusic.com
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 10:39 AM

The deleted webpage is archived at The Internet Archive, and can be seen at (among several urls):

The Snows They Melt the Soonest

Sadly, Erica Smith proved unable to spell my name correctly, but such laziness is not uncommon. Otherwise it was an adequate, though incomplete and poorly edited, summary of information that appeared in several postings in the Mudcat thread Origins: The Snows They Melt the Soonest. There is no summary here; just the original discussion, of which only a small part is to the point.

I don't think that the relevant volume of Blackwood's Magazine is available online (though later volumes are), so if you want to read the whole thing you'll probably have to find a library copy. I was only able to transcribe the passage relevant to the song in question, having but a blunt and borrowed pencil to hand. The whole of that passage, though, is quoted in the thread indicated.

Subject: RE: Origins: Snows They Melt - maidmusic.com
From: Kiss Me Slow Slap Me Quick
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 11:20 AM

I well rember Ray Fisher retelling how she heard a lady singer who sang this as, It Snows On Mount Vesuvius when the wind begins to sink.

Subject: RE: Origins: Snows They Melt - maidmusic.com
From: michaelr
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 06:33 PM

That reminds me: what sort of bird is a marten? I thought it was a kind of weasel, but those don't often take wing.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: Origins: Snows They Melt - maidmusic.com
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 08:26 PM

Erica didn't do a terribly good editorial job there, either, though in fairness to her the mis-spelling was originally Dick Gaughan's; she lifted the lyric from his website without acknowledgement. In the original, the bird is 'martlet', an alternative form of 'martin'.

It just goes to show how important it is to credit sources when quoting lyrics etc. Quite apart from anything else, giving due credit to your source means that you can also blame them (in part) if it turns out to be wrong. The picture of a flying weasel is engaging, though perhaps also a little scary, come to think of it.