Lyr Add: The Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)

Subject: Lyr Add: Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)
From: John In Brisbane
Date: 27 Nov 98 - 01:47 AM

Will post the tune after the weekend. Regards, John.

Please see the notes below the lyrics. Source - Volkslieder site.

THE MAID OF LLANWELLYN
(Joanna Baillie)

1. I've no sheep on the mountains
Nor boat on the lake
Nor coin in my coffer
To keep me awake
Nor corn in my garner,
Nor fruit on my tree
Yet the maid of Llanwellyn
Smiles sweetly on me.

2. Rich Owen will tell you,
With eyes full of scorn
Threadbare is my coat,
And my hosen are torn
Scoff on, my rich Owen,
For faint is thy glee
When the maid of Llanwellyn
Smiles sweetly on me.

3. The farmer rides proudly
To market and fair
And the clerk at the ale house
Still claims the great chair
But of all our proud fellows
The proudest I'll be
While the maid of Llanwellyn
Smiles sweetly on me.

This song was published by George Thomson of Edinburgh, 1757-1851, who paid F. J. Haydn in Vienna, 2 ducats each, for some 200 tunes, to give old British Isles' folk tunes real class. He then got some more tunes from Beethoven, who quit, disgusted with the pay.

"In her 'Maid of Llanwellyn', Miss Baillie's lyric spoke of the beautiful lakes in Wales. When Thomson objected, saying that Wales had no lakes, Miss Joanna Baillie haughtily answered that since lakes would not rise out of the earth for their convenience, and since she was unwilling to alter the line, they would just have to hope that their readers would be as ignorant as she had been when she wrote it."

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Click to play (joeweb)

...and here's the MIDI from the Volkslieder Website:

Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Dec 14 - 08:21 AM

I am trying to find the dots of the tune Maid of Llanwellyn
Does anyone have them please?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 20 Dec 14 - 10:56 AM

Hello, Guest. I like Welsh music too, so I am sending in a MIDI of this tune for posting here. Perhaps someone will make an ABC of it so it goes further.

The song has a big range, almost two octaves. I've put it in the key of G (was F).

The first post (dated 1998) said that the tune is on the Volkslieder site. The poster probably meant this site, which is an excellent site for any folk musician to know about:

http://ingeb.org/home.html

Sometimes it takes a while for a song to appear, sometimes it's virtually instantaneous, so keep checking back here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 20 Dec 14 - 07:12 PM

The time it takes for MIDIs to get posted, depends greatly upon the time that Joe gets out of bed...or gets back from one of his frequent vacations...

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Click to play (joeweb)

...and here's the MIDI from the Volkslieder Website:

Click to play

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)
From: GUEST,Andrew W-R
Date: 30 Jun 20 - 04:32 AM

Some notes (and hypothesizing) on The Maid Of Llanwellyn

When John Shepherd of Rhyl Folk Club asserted that this song was American, I doubted him. Doubting, I dug deeper and found a much more tangled and confused history than John had prefaced the song with.

Lyrics

The Maid Of Llanwellyn was a poem by Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) of Lanarkshire, Scotland. Although Scottish, she moved to England, living in Hampstead from 1802.

The Maid Of Llanwellyn appears in print in 'The Songs Of Scotland, Ancient and Modern', compiled by Allan Cunningham in 1825 (Page 319 in the edition held by the Bodleian Library), though this is unlikely to be the first appearance in print.

Melody

The Maid of Llanwellyn was published as a song by George Thomson of Edinburgh (1757-1851). The melody was one of 200 tunes Thomson bought from Franz Joseph Haydn (Austrian, 1732-1809) for 2 ducats each.

Wales

The lyrics speak of a lake. When George Thomson remarked that Wales had no lakes, Joanna Baillie haughtily answered that since lakes would not rise out of the earth for their convenience, and since she was unwilling to alter the line, they would just have to hope that their readers would be as ignorant as she had been when she wrote it.
From this exchange, we may deduce the poem was intended to be about Wales (not America), since Miss Baillie didn't correct George Thomson's assumption. We may also form the opinion that George Thomson was himself ignorant of the geography of Wales, since we do indeed have many lakes.
The poem was also published in "Poems Of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes", edited by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow between 1876 and 1879. Longfellow identified it as a poem of Wales.

Pennsylvania

John Shepherd was correct in stating that Llanwellyn is in Pennsylvania. However, he seems to have inadvertently put the cart before the horse.
In late 1886 Henry J. Scott of Pennsylvania (1855-1932) bought 50 acres of land in Glenolden from George G. Knowles.
Scott laid out several streets on his new land and opened two of them: Scott Avenue and Llanwellyn Avenue. He called the development "Llanwellyn" which he erroneously claimed was Welsh for "Spring has come". Scott improved the property by planting Lombard poplars on all the streets and in August, 1887, he made the development available for sale.

Supposition

The name Llanwellyn does not appear anywhere prior to Joanna Baillie's poem. Hence, the poem (or song) is the likely source of the name Henry J Scott picked for his land development.
Longfellow's anthology was widely available at that time and is just one possible source.
It is not likely that Henry J Scott came up with the name Llanwellyn independently of Joanna Baillie. His mistranslation ("Spring has come") attests to an ignorance of the Welsh language.
Although many Pennsylvanians were Welsh migrants, Scott was not. Welsh place names were commonplace in the locale though, and Scott may have thought a Welsh name was appropriate. Within 6 miles of Llanwellyn, the district of Bala Cynwyd boasts Colwyn Lane, Rhyle Lane, St Asaphs Street, Bala Avenue, Clwyd Road, Llandrillo Road and Llanberris Road. With so many place names listed from my home county, it seems clear that the area was not just settled by Welshmen but by Gogs. (North Wales = Gogledd Cymru, hence we northern welshmen are called Gogs)

Misinformation

Googling Llanwellyn yields a Facebook page on Things To Do In Llanwellyn. The heading of the page claims Llanwellyn is a city in the United States. Hardly! It's a suburb of Philadelphia. The original land purchase was only 50 acres.
There are also several websites listing The Maid Of Llanwellyn among the traditional songs of Wales. Considering it was penned by a Scottish woman living in London, to a melody composed by an Austrian, about a fictional place, it's hard to see how Wales can lay claim to it.

Oh! And finally...
There is a Welsh version: Y Ferch O'r Llanwellyn, arranged for acoustic guitar by Elfed Hayes in 2007. It's an instrumental, so only the title got translated.

The Maid Of Llanwellyn was written by a Scot, published as a Scottish poem, made into a song by another Scot and inspired a housing estate built by a man named Scott (His name indicating his ancestry was Scottish).
It's a Scottish Song!
AWR

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)
From: leeneia
Date: 02 Jul 20 - 10:21 AM

I agree. But wherever it comes from, it seems like a good song, pleasant to sing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)
From: leeneia
Date: 02 Jul 20 - 10:38 AM

According to the first post, Thomson paid Haydn for 200 tunes, but that is wrong. Thomson paid Haydn (and also Beethoven) to arrange existing Scottish tunes.

That's according to this article:

https://userhome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/anthro/jbeatty/Scotia/issue34/issue34a.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)
From: Reinhard
Date: 02 Jul 20 - 11:07 AM

The first post said "who paid F. J. Haydn in Vienna, 2 ducats each, for some 200 tunes, to give old British Isles' folk tunes real class."

Sounds like arrangements to me.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Maid of Llanwellyn (Joanna Baillie)
From: leeneia
Date: 03 Jul 20 - 12:58 AM

About Welsh words. When I saw the name of this song, I thought, "Well, somebody doesn't know how to spell Llewellyn." But the actual word makes sense. According to Google Translate, Llan is church and wellyn is well. So the town where the Maid lives is named for a church near a well.

I believe there are a lot of Welsh towns whose names start with Llan.

Subject: Lyr Add: I'VE NO SHEEP ON THE MOUNTAINS (J Baillie
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Jul 20 - 05:42 PM

The original has 2 more verses than those included at the Volkslieder site.

From The Harp of Renfrewshire; a Collection of Songs and Other Poetical Pieces Many of Which are Original (Glasgow: William Turnbull, 1820), page 70:


I'VE NO SHEEP ON THE MOUNTAINS.
Joanna Baillie*

I've no sheep on the mountains, nor boat on the lake,
Nor coin in my coffer to keep me awake;
No corn in my garner, nor fruit on my tree,
Yet the maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.

Softly tapping, at eve, to her window I came,
And loud bay'd the watch-dog, loud scolded the dame,
For shame, silly Light-foot, what is it to thee,
Tho' the maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.

Rich Owen will tell you, with eyes full of scorn,
Threadbare is my coat and my hosen are torn;
Scoff on, my rich Owen, for faint is thy glee,
When the maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.

The farmer rides proudly to market and fair,
And the clerk, at the ale-house, still claims the great chair,
But of all our proud fellows the proudest I'll be,
While the maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.

For blythe as the urchin at holiday play,
And meek as a matron in mantle of gray,
And trim as the lady of noblest degree,
Is the maid of Llanwellyn who smiles upon me.


* The author's name is not printed on the same page as the poem, but it is printed in the index, page 447.