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16 Nov 96 - 03:20 PM (#406) Subject: Lyrics request: Earl of Totnes From: Seeking works for "Earl of Totnes" The only recordong I know of is per Robin & Barry Dransfield, on The Rout of the Blues. Unfortunately There are many words I can't quite get. The following is the best I could do... The feast was over at Techam Hall And the wassail bowl had been served to all The Earl of Totnes rose from his place The chanters came in to say the grace. But scarce was ended this holy rite There stepped from the crowd a valiant knight His armor bright and his visage brown His name was Sir Arthur de Jump a-noun Good Earl of Totness approached a me My fleetest courser from Barbary And whether good or ill betide A wager with you I mean for to ride No Barbary Courser do I own But I have brought the Earl of Devonshire home I'll write you a wager by land or by sea Help! |
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01 Sep 01 - 03:19 PM (#539757) Subject: RE: Lyrics request: Earl of Totnes From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca To complete this query |
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28 Dec 07 - 06:28 PM (#2223994) Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Earl of Totnes From: Jim Dixon This long poem can be found in two books that are viewable with Google Book Search: In The West Country Garland edited by Richard Nicholls Worth, 1875, where it is called THE RIDE TO SEA and is printed with this introduction:
IN many parts of Devonshire, and in others of the western counties, the stranger is somewhat puzzled at finding one or more horse-shoes nailed in regular order on the principal—generally the great west-door of the church. ... [H]orse-shoes are arranged in various patterns—sometimes in the form of a cross—and to most of them some story is attached accounting for their remarkable position. ... [W]e would suggest that all these stories are more or less inventions after the fact, and that the horse-shoe was originally intended, as it still is when hung or nailed over the doors of Devonshire farm-houses, to keep all evil things—witch, ill-wisher, ghost, "fairy, or fiend"—from crossing the sacred threshold. That it was possible for such creatures to enter a consecrated building, and that no ordinary means would expel them, was undoubtedly the ancient belief, not only of western England, but of all Christendom. ... The horse-shoe itself is, probably from its form and from its material—no goblin can endure iron—one of the most ancient defences against evil spirits—more powerful even than St. John's wort or mountain ash. On the door of Haccombe Church—one of the most interesting in Devonshire from its fine memorials of the Haccombes and Carews, who have held the manor for ages—are two horse-shoes, of which the traditional story is told in the following ballad, written, we believe, by a master of the Exeter Grammar-School early in the present century. It deserves preservation on its own account; for, if it has not the true old ballad "ring," it recalls the later verses, which had a merit of their own, of Mickle and his followers. The Champernownes of Dartington rank among the most ancient families of Devon. The only Earl of Totnes was Sir George Carew, created in 1626, and famous in the Irish wars of Elizabeth and James I.; but tradition in these matters is not very particular. |