Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass

Subject: Lyr Add: HEXHAMSHIRE LASS
From: Conrad Bladey (Peasant- Inactive)
Date: 18 Mar 00 - 08:14 PM

HEXHAMSHIRE LASS

Hey for the buff and the blue,
Hey for the cap and the feather,
Hey for the bonny lass true,
That lives in Hexhamshire.

CHORUS: Through by the Saiby Syke,
And over the moss and the mire,
I'll go to see my lass,
Who lives in Hexhamshire.

Her father loved her well,
Her mother loved her better,
I love the lass mysel',
But, alas! I cannot get her.

O, This love, this love,
Of this love I'm weary,
Sleep I can get none,
For thinking on my deary.

My heart is like to break,
By bosom is on fire,
So well I love the lass,
That lives in Hexhamshire.

Her petticoat is silk,
And plated rondwith siller,
Her shoes are tied with tape;
She'll wait till I go till her.

Were I where I would be,
I would be beside her;
But here a while I must be,
Whatever may betide her.

Hey for the thick and the thin,
Hey for the mud and the mire.
And hey for the bonny lass,
That lives in Hexhamshire.
^^

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 18 Mar 00 - 10:02 PM

It's one of the "Ay, waukin O" complex, and is on my wesite with an ABC of the tune for it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Mar 00 - 10:31 PM

See also The Hexhamshire Lass (rather poorly transcribed from a Fairport Convention record) on the DT,  here.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 02:14 PM

The text Conrad gives was published in Northumbrian Minstrelsy (Bruce & Stokoe, 1882).  I assume that Fairport learnt the song from the High Level Ranters, whose version is practically identical to that in the Minstrelsy, except for this verse:

I wish I could be there
Lying close beside her
But I must stay here awhile
Whatever may betide her.

The tune has changed a little since 1882; as part of MMario's drive to find tunes missing from texts given on the DT, I shall send midis of the older version and the newer (slightly modified to fit the words in the DT) to Alan's Mudcat Midi Site.

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: Barbara
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 03:15 PM

Isn't the first bit -- "Hey for the buff and the blue" -- the chorus? The way it's written out, it looks like the chorus is " Through and by Saiby Syke...".
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 03:43 PM

Barbara, I think you are correct. It was common in the 18th and 19th century to print songs chorus first, and this has led to confusion on more than one song. In the 18th century it was common to have the heading be the tune to which the song was to be sung, rather than the title of the song, and this has led to incorrect identification of the song given on several occasions.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 04:45 PM

I consulted Steve Roud's folksong index, where the song is Roud# 3182. It appears as if 6 published texts are all either derived, or more likely just copied, from one in Bell's 'Rhymes of the Northern Bards', 1812. There is no traditional singer listed as informant for any text.

The first line of these is given as "Hey for the buff and the blue". However, in Dave Harker's edition of John Bell's manuscripts, 1985, the first line of the only other text is given as "Through the sevie sike and o'er the mossy moor". I'm pretty sure Barbara is correct here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 04:56 PM

That's rather interesting; of course "Through by the Saiby Syke" is used as the chorus nowadays.  If this has arisen through a misunderstanding of the layout of a printed source, then presumably the verses are now being sung to the wrong part of the tune!

Malcolm

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 05:08 PM

I'm racking my brain trying to remember a song in 'The Scots Musical Museum' where a chorus first then first verse were printed with the tune. My question is: Was the tune also printed chorus first?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 05:32 PM

I may have been wrong. The text on my website shows that the chorus starts "Through...", not "Hey for..". But that may be from a late editor. Without knowing exactly what John Bell gave in 1812, and comparing with that in his manuscripts, I don't think we can solve this problem, and maybe not even then.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 06:21 PM

The copy of the song in 'Northumbrian Minstrelsy', was the first to appear with music. The text and tune there is that given on my website, and the tune is correct (by definition) for the text given there. This copy indicates the chorus starting 'Through by" after each verse. So regardless of what's in Bell's 'Rhymes of the Northern Bards' or Bell's manuscripts, we don't have chorus and verse switched with respect to the two halves of the tune.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Aug 00 - 07:56 PM

On my way to the pub earlier on, I found myself humming "Aye Waukin O"; it's so closely related to "Hexhamshire Lass" that clearly, the tune is not the wrong way round, so my earlier comment was wrong.  If there is an error involving a switch of verse and chorus, it dates back at least to 1882.

Malcolm

Subject: Lyr Add: THE HEXHAMSHIRE LASS
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 20 Aug 00 - 04:55 PM

I relocated the few xeroxed copies of songs I made from Dave Harker's Songs from the Manuscript Collection of John Bell, Surtees Society, 1985. Among them is the following:

THE HEXHAMSHIRE LASS

Through the sevie Sike & O'er the Mossy Mire [rushy dyke
Oh for the bonny bonny Lass that lives in Hexhamshire
her Father likes her Weel, her Mother likes her better
I like the Lass mysel but flaid I Wona get her [afraid I won't

When I came to this Town
they ca'd me Robin Rowell
now they've changed my Name
and they ca me the Rakeing Jewell

Oh that I was where a wad be [a, not I]
then wad I be where I am not
But where I am I mun be
and where I wad I cannot
..............................

The first verse should obviously be split into two verses of shorter lines. Harker's term for it is a fragment. That second verse here is practically the same as one in "A New Song called Harry Newel" on my website, and is very similar to the opening of the American[?] "Katy Cruel", and the last above is practically the same as found in the chorus of "Katy Cruel". The manuscript copy bears no date, and the paper has no watermark. Some of Bell's manuscript texts are of later date than his book of 1812. Harker noted the version of the song in 'Northumbrian Minstrelsy', but is unclear as to whether it's the same as in Bell's 'Rhymes of the Northern Bards'. Harker adds: "Versions have been found in several parts of the English-speaking world, under varying titles."

That's the end of the facts, and, since I've already done too much speculation on this subject, I quit here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: *Conrad Bladey Peasant-Inactive
Date: 20 Aug 00 - 09:33 PM

Northumbrian Minstrelsy(Bruce/Stokoe) 1965 edition. treats: "Through by the Saiby Syke" As chorus

____________________ Same is true in: Rhymes of the Northern Bards John Bell MDCCCXII ________________________ Then there is the fragment #142 in John Bell's Song Collection Savie Sike is the spelling and that verse comes first _______

That's all I have on it!Thanks for the encouragement to update my page....

Conrad

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: GUEST,Alan of Oz (at work)
Date: 20 Aug 00 - 10:46 PM

G'day,
Can anyone translate "Saiby Syke" or "sevie Sike"? It's puzzled me for years.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: GUEST,Bruce O.
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 01:58 AM

See the end of the line in my last post. That's Dave Harker's translation.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: Brendy
Date: 21 Aug 00 - 02:17 AM

Unfortunately there's only a 17 second sound byte of Tony Sheehan doing a fine version of the song here. (There used to be a picture of him too!). Mudcatter John Wood produced this version on a CD which has had a fair bit of exposure in Scandanavia.

B.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 26 Aug 00 - 09:29 PM

Thanks Bruce, I hadn't noticed that earlier.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Hexhamshire Lass
From: GUEST,C. martin
Date: 27 Dec 23 - 05:19 PM

Saiby's was a farm out west of Hexham, and a syke is a slow-moving stream.