> Folk Music > Songs > Footprints in the Snow

Footprints in the Snow

[ Roud 2660 ; Ballad Index DTftprin ; Bodleian Roud 2660 ; Wiltshire 600 ; DT FTPRINTS ; Mudcat 56288 ; Harry Wright]

George Belton sang I Traced Her Little Footprints in the Snow to Keith Summers in the 1960s. This recording was included in 2020 on his Musical Traditions anthology A True Furrow to Hold. Rod Stradling noted:

Not a very popular song in England (6 Roud examples)—unsurprising, as it’s an American song. Apart from George, only Walter Pardon and Frank Hinchliffe are known to have sung it here.

One of the classic Bill Monroe songs of all time. Despite the fact that Bill claimed authorship under the pseudonym Rupert Jones, the song was much older. Bill learned it in the early 1930s when he was at the National Barn Dance in Chicago. But the author of this English music hall song was one Harry Wright who composed it in about 1880 under the title Footmarks in the Snow.

Alice Jones and Bryony Griffith sang I Traced Her Little Footmarks in the Snow in 2023 on their Selwyn album Wesselbobs. They noted:

There are three different broadside versions of this in the Frank Kidson collection. Upon researching its background, Alice found it was in fact an immensely popular music hall song published in 1875, written by Harry Wright for his wife the singer, actress and dancer Nellie Gannon. It was a huge success and, in the face of stringent piracy laws surrounding copyright and performance rights, printers all over the country began to illicitly print broadside copies of the lyrics. They changed words here and there in an attempt to legitimise their illegal printing of the song and it soon became a bestseller under the title I Traced Her Little Footprints in the Snow. Quickly entering the oral tradition, it later featured in many a source singer’s repertoire including Yorkshire’s own Frank Hinchliffe who learnt it from his father. He was only able to remember part of the tune by the time Ian Russell recorded him as part of his PhD dissertation in 1970. This version is based on recordings of Walter Pardon, George Belton and Frank Hinchliffe.

Lyrics

George Belton sings I Traced Her Little Footprints in the Snow

I called to see the girl I love one winter’s afternoon,
They said she’d gone out walking for to meet me very soon,
They said she’d strolled away, but could not tell me where,
So I started off to find her in the snow.

Chorus:
I traced the little footprints in the snow, don’t you know,
I traced her little footprints in the snow
I bless the winter’s day when Nellie lost her way
I traced her little footprints in the snow.

I traced her little footprints there outside her cottage door
I traced her down a country lane and traced her to the moor
I thought she’d lost her way, she stood in blank dismay,
Not knowing where to go to in the snow.

O I saw her and she saw me as we were walking home,
She promised never more without me she would roam.
I’m happy now for ever for she became my wife
Whose footprints I saw plainly in the snow.

Alice Jones and Bryony Griffith sing I Traced Her Little Footmarks in the Snow

Some lovers like the summertime when they can stroll about.
Spooning in the meadow may be fine without a doubt.
But give to me the wintertime for the girl I have made mine,
Was captured when the snow lay on the ground.

Chorus:
I traced her little footmarks in the snow,
I traced her little footmarks in the snow,
I bless that winter’s day when Nellie lost her way,
I traced her little footmarks in the snow.

I called to see the girl I loved, one winter’s afternoon,
That she had gone out walking, they informed me very soon,
They said she’d strolled away but where they could not say,
So I started off to find her in the snow.

I saw her little footmark just outside the cottage door,
I traced it down a country lane, I traced it to the moor,
I found she’d lost her way, there stood in blank dismay,
Not knowing where to steer for in the snow.

I called to her, she saw me and as we were walking home,
She promised me that never more without me she would roam,
I’m happy now for life, for her I’ve made my wife,
Whose footmarks I traced plainly in the snow.