Lyr Req: Pretty Nancy/Polly of Plymouth

Subject: Lyr Req: Pretty Nancy/Polly of Plymouth
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 16 Feb 21 - 05:21 PM

Hi all,
One for Mick Pearce perhaps. I've searched in all the usual places for this one and it doesn't tally with any of the many other songs that go by similar titles.

In the Sharp manuscripts is the following fragment from Mrs Glover of Somerset. I'm trying to match it up with any other versions. It has no mention of a Nancy in it but Sharp saw fit to title it Pretty Nancy, possibly because it has some similar lines to Pretty Nancy of Yarmouth. Steve has given it a new number 12659 but I feel sure it's a version of something that already has a number. Anyway here it is.

Sad news, sad news to Plymouth came, our goodly ship was lost,
Which cause`d many seamen bold to dread the danger of the loss,
But Polly dear she laid a lament for the loss of her own sweet-heart,
The raging seas and stormy winds keep me and my Polly apart.

O Polly dear, o Polly dear, this letter I'm going to write,
And when you do receive it 'twill cause you many a tear,
I'm sometimes on deck, I'm sometimes below and the rest of my time so well,
Tis the thought of Polly runs in my mind that do torment me so.

It is obviously quite corrupt but the thread is reasonable.

The second verse would scan better as:
O Polly dear, o Polly dear, this letter I write to you,
And when you do receive it 'twill cause you for to rue
Sometimes I am up on deck, sometimes I am below.
Polly's always on my mind, it do torment me so.

Subject: LYR ADD: SCILLY ROCKS
From: cnd
Date: 16 Feb 21 - 07:30 PM

I've found a substantially similar text in "Songs of Sailor Life" (Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 5, No. 19 (Jun., 1915), pp. 161-173) titled "SCILLY ROCKS," though it only matches primarily with the first stanza, with no reference to the second.

Mudcat has a few threads on Scilly Rocks already, if that is indeed the song you're after. Hopefully I'm not muddying things up.

Below are the notes from the journal cited above:

Compare the following version noted by the late Mr. II. E. D. Hammond, who wrote, when sending twenty songs from Todber, "They nearly all have to do with the sea, Elliott having been a fisherman off Newfoundland. He went out with about sixty other men chiefly from Dorset, starting from Dartmouth, about fifty-five years ago (in 1905). He is some seventy years old now. He knows nothing of the original source of most of his songs, having learnt them nearly all while fishing." The last two lines are common to many sea-ballads, including "The Lowlands of Holland."


SCILLY ROCKS
(Sung by Mr. Joseph Elliot, at Todber, near Marnhull, Dorsett, 1905)

I parted from my own true love, the girl that I adore,
And press'd I was to the raging seas, Where the foamy billows road.

We were bound for th' East Indias, our goodly ship to steer,
And all the way as we sail6d on I thought of Polly dear.

"Up aloft, up aloft!" our captain cried, "the first man to spy land
Half a guinea he shall have, and handsome reward [to hand]."

Up aloft, up aloft, our boson went, 'pon our maintop so high,
Where he looked round 'pon every side, nor light nor lamp could spy.

As he was shaving down the racks, some light he chanced to spy:
"Bear away, bear away before the wind, some harbour we be nigh."

"There's no bear away," our captain cried, " from Scilly rocks keep clear,
'Pon the ocean wide we must remain, till daylight doth appear."

Still we steered on, like hearts so bold, thinking all danger past,
Till we, poor souls, that dreadful night on Scilly rocks was cast.

And when our ship she struck the rocks our captain loudly cried,
Saying "Lord 'a mercy on we poor souls, this night for evermore!"

Out of eight hundred and fifty-four there's four of us reached the shore,
Our goodly ship in splinters went, and she never was seen no more.

Sad news, sad news to Plymouth town, our goodly ship was lost,
Where the pretty girls and sailors' wives was weeping for us all.

O Polly dear, O Polly dear, what makes you to lament?
For the raging seas and the-stormy winds caused you and I to part.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pretty Nancy/Polly of Plymouth
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Feb 21 - 07:37 PM

Oh, gee, this is interesting. But I can't make sense out of much of it with the invasive ads. If you have the same problem, please remember that there is an ads-free version of every post and every thread in the "printer-friendly" option.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pretty Nancy/Polly of Plymouth
From: GUEST,#
Date: 16 Feb 21 - 08:10 PM

See the post by Nerd:

Subject: Lyr Add: SCILLY ROCKS
From: Nerd
Date: 28 Aug 08 - 02:36 AM

https://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=113841

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pretty Nancy/Polly of Plymouth
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 17 Feb 21 - 09:56 AM

Brilliant,cnd!
Mudcat triumphs again!
Many thanks, and many thanks from Nick Dow whose query it was originally. We can now include it in our next book.

So Roud 12659 is actually Roud 388/Laws K8.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pretty Nancy/Polly of Plymouth
From: RTim
Date: 17 Feb 21 - 07:03 PM

On my recording - "George Blake's Legacy" - I have it as collected from Blake as below:

THE ROCKS OF SCILLY.
It’s of a brisk young seaman bold that ploughed the raging main.
Come listen to my tragedy, while I relate the same.
It’s pressed I was from my true love, She’s the girl that I adore,
And sent I was to the raging seas, where the foaming billows roar.

We had not sailed a league on sail before a storm did rise,
May the Lord have mercy on our souls, so dismal was the skies.
Sometimes aloft, sometimes on deck and the other time below,
When the thoughts of my Polly love run in my mind when the foaming billows roar.

Our Captain being a valiant man he on the deck did stand,
“Here’s a full reward of fifty pounds for the first that could see land.”
Then up aloft our boatswain went on the main topsail so high,
He looked around on every side, neither land nor life could spy.

The very first time our ship she struck so loud against a rock,
May the Lord have mercy on our souls for the deep must be our lot.
And out of eight hundred seamen bold only four got safe on shore,
Our galliant [sic] ship to pieces went and she was never seen any more.

And when the news to Plymouth came, our galliant [sic] ship was lost,
Caused many a brisk young seaman bold for to lament her loss.
And Polly dear she must lament for the loss of her sweetheart,
’Twas the raging seas and the stormy winds caused my love and I to part.

Gardiner mss. no. 344, and it would seem that the text for this song was collected on two separate occasions with very slight word changes, first In June 1906 in notebook no. 7 page 61 and then November 1907 in notebook No. 12 page 101. Blake’s title in the manuscript of 1906 is “It’s of a Brisk Young Seaman Bold”; only later is it called “The Rocks of Scilly”.
However, it does say that Mr. J.F. Guyer collected the tune in November 1907. Roud has it listed as no. 388 in his index and a version collected by Gardiner from George Collier of Street, near Petersfield can be found in Purslow’s Constant Lovers on page 87, Gardiner mss. no. H1135. The text and tune are different to Blake’s. In fact Blake’s tune is a version of the well-known tune: Star of County Down and its alternative titles, which Gardiner in his notes calls “The Marigold”. Many singers have used this tune for
many different songs all across England and even North America. The chosen text here is as collected in June 1906, mainly because George seemed to have fuller texts earlier in his life, even though he was 78 in 1906.

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Pretty Nancy/Polly of Plymouth
From: GUEST,Nick Dow
Date: 19 Feb 21 - 07:03 PM

I can finally offer my thanks to cnd and all other contributors to this thread. I have had a few health problems this week which have left me indisposed. Thanks to all.