> Folk Music > Songs > The Distressed Maid

The Distressed Maid / Down by the (Old) Riverside / The Lily-White Hand

[ Roud 564 ; Master title: The Distressed Maid ; Laws P18 ; Ballad Index LP18 ; VWML GG/1/10/589 , GG/1/13/781 ; GlosTrad Roud 564 ; MusTrad DB19 ; trad.]

Nick Dow: Southern Songster Steve Gardham: A Yorkshire Songster Fred Hamer: Garners Gay Willoam Henry Long: A Dictionary of the Isle of Wight Dialect Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger: Travellers’ Songs From England and Scotland Frank Purslow: The Wanton Seed James Reeeves: The Idiom of the People The Everlasting Circle Sam Richards & Tish Stubbs: The English Folksinger Mike Yates: Traveller’s Joy

See also the related ballad of seduction and breaking the promise of marriage, Down by Blackwaterside [ Roud 564 ; G/D 6:1188 ; Ballad Index K151 ]

Fred Jordan sang a fragment of Down by the Riverside in a recording made by Mike Yates in 1965 which was published in 2003 on his Veteran CD A Shropshire Lad.

May Bradley from Ludlow, Shropshire, sang The Lily White Hand to Fred Hamer in 1966. This recording was included in 1989 on the VWML cassette of Fred Hamer’s field recordings, The Leaves of Life. Probably the same recording was included in 2010 with the title Down by the Riverside on her Musical Tradition anthology Sweet Swansea. Rod Stradling noted:

A well-known song, with 83 entries in the Roud Index, more than a quarter of which are sound recordings. Almost all are from England, plus a few from the north of Ireland and North America. Gypsy names crop up frequently amongst the listed singers. Both words and tune are remarkably close to that sung by Freda Palmer, of Leafield, Oxfordshire.

The 2007 Musical Tradition anthology of the Brazil Family, Down by the Old Riverside, starts with four versions of Harry Brazil, Doris Davies, Danny Brazil and Lemmie Brazil singing The Old Riverside. Three of them were recorded by Peter Shepheard in 1966, and Danny Brazil was recorded by Gwilym Davies in 1995. The booklet accompanying this anthology commented:

The Doris Davies track is amongst the first recordings Peter Shepheard made of any of the Brazil family—and it was Doris who pointed him to her father Harry. Her version of The Old Riverside was fairly complete, and it then became a challenge to try and get the complete Brazil Family version of the song by recording it from as many of the family as possible.

A well-known song, with 80 entries in the Roud Index, 21 of which are sound recordings. Almost all are from England, plus a few from the north of Ireland and North America. Gypsy names crop up frequently amongst the listed singers.

George Spicer sang The Lily-White Hand in a recording made by Mike Yates between 1972 and 1974 that was released on the 1975 Topic album When Sheepshearing’s Done and on the 2001 Musical Traditions CD of songs and music from the Mike Yates collection, Up in the North and Down in the South. His son Ron Spicer sang it on the 1995 Veteran CD of traditional singing from the South East of England, When the May Is All in Bloom. Mike Yates commented in the first album’s liner notes:

The Lily-White Hand is a song with a long, and at times complicated, lineage. “He took her by the lily white hand, and he laid her upon a bed” are lines in Chapman’s May Day of 1602, and part of the song’s theme appears in the early blackletter broadside of The Western Knight. The song is well known in Ireland under the title Blackwater Side. In the version called Abroad As I Was Walking, which George Gardiner collected in Hampshire in 1907, the girl is aged fourteen and it is she who is responsible for the young man’s seduction. No doubt Victorian morality was outraged by such sentiment and it would seem that our present song was rewritten in the 19^th century in an effort to conform to what was then current taste.

Harry Cox sang this song as The Grand Hotel in a recording made by Cliff Godbold in 1967 on his Topic anthology of 2000, The Bonny Labouring Boy. Steve Roud commented in the liner notes:

Frequently collected in England in the 20^th century, and also well-known in Ireland, Scotland and North America, under titles such as The Lily-White Hand or Down by the Riverside, but rare on broadsides. Traditional versions display a fair amount of textual difference, but with key phrases such as “the younger you are the better for me” cropping up time and again. In many versions, including the earliest known, collected in Ayrshire in 1827, the song ends with the girl’s lament for the cruelty of men, while others agree with Harry in the description of the cold-blooded murder.

Queen Caroline Hughes sang Down by the Old Riverside in a recording made by Peter Kennedy in her caravan near Blandford, Dorset on 19 April 1968. This was published in 2012 on the Topic anthology I’m a Romany Rai (The Voice of the People Series, Volume 22).

Cyril Tawney sang this song as The Squire and the Fair Maid in a recording made in 1971 by Tony Taverner. It was released in 1976 on his Trailer album of seduction songs from the Baring-Gould manuscripts, Down Among the Barley Straw. His liner notes said it was “from J. Hoskins of South Brent, 1889”.

Mary Ann Haynes sang Lily-White Hand in a 1973 recording made by Mike Yates which was originally published in 1987 on the Veteran tape of traditional songs from Sussex, 2cwRipest Apples and later included on the 1993 Veteran CD of traditional folk music, songs and dances, Stepping It Out.

Harry Upton from Balcombe, Sussex, sang In Wayward Town to Mike Yates on 25 November 1976. This recording was released in 1978 on his Topic/Special Delivery album Why Can’t It Always Be Saturday? and in 2015 on his extended same-named Musical Tradition anthology Why Can’t It Always Be Saturday?. Rod Stradling noted:

Some songs, which were printed extensively by broadside printers, have failed to turn up on the lips of folksingers. Others, like Wayward Town (or The Lily-White Hand to use a better-known title) are just the opposite; seldom printed, but often encountered. As The Gentleman’s Meeting it was included in a Glasgow chapbook printed c.1818 by R. Hutchison, who then worked at No 10, Saltmarket. Hutchison’s title is strange, when one considers how the man has treated the young girl! Or is there an intended irony in the title? Most collectors have come across the song at some time or other—often from Gypsy singers who seem to be especially fond of it. They’re also quite fond of combining it with The Oxford Girl, to carry on the story after the girl is murdered and, sometimes, to see the murderer brought to justice.

Most of Roud’s examples are from England, but it has been found in most lands where English is spoken. Paddy Tunney, Win Ryan and Mary and Paddy Doran were all recorded singing it in Ireland; Ord, Greig and MacQueen heard it in Scotland; while Cecil Sharp also noted a couple of sets in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina and Kentucky, in 1916-17.

Sophie Legg sang Down by the Old Riverside in a recording made by Pete Coe in 1978 on the 2003 Veteran CD of songs from the Orchard family of Cornish travellers, Catch Me If You Can.

Mary Lozier of South Portsmouth, Ohio, sang Last May Morn on 14 October 1979 to Mark Wilson and Roger Cooper. This recording was included in 2007 on the Musical Traditions anthology of folk songs of the Upper South, XMeeting’s a Pleasure Volume 1. Mark Wilson noted:

The sagacious Mr ‘Dungbeetle’ prints a facsimile of the original The Distressed Maid in his nineteenth entry and correctly observes that the song remains popular in England (MT 311 Up in the North and Down in the South; Topic 512 The Bonny Labouring Boy) and, in altered form, in Ireland (Sarah Porter’s Down by the Deep River Side on MT 309 Just Another Saturday Night begins like ours but then strays along a different trajectory). He comments that the piece is “seemingly scarce in America”, but, in my experience, this is not so. Indeed, Wash Nelson supplied us with a fine text (which I once issued on Rdr 0141 Just Something My Uncle Told Me, perhaps misguidedly, given its companion company). William May on AH 010 and Clay Walters for the Library of Congress have also recorded texts similar to Mary’s. Indeed, the popular radio singer Bradley Kincaid even included a version in the 1928 songbook that he used to sell over the airwaves on WLS in Chicago. Mary loved listening to Kincaid, as many fellow Kentuckians did, for his songs reminded her of home, during the unhappy period when she and John attempted to settle in Circleville, just outside of Columbus, Ohio:

I don’t know but it seemed like people up there weren’t as friendly up there as down here in Kentucky and I was very homesick.

Mary learned a number of songs from Kincaid, including The Housewife’s Lament, but not this one, which she got from her mother (her chief source of songs). Kincaid’s text, in fact, is considerably different than Mary’s and I always found it odd that an employee of the Young Men’s Christian Association would be willing to sing the song even in the chastened form in which he published it. I have also wondered at Mary’s strange “There’s fish that dies from swallowing flies / There’s no young man who’ll prove true”, but I recently located one of Baring-Gould’s texts that serves to rationalize it: “When fishes fly as swallows high / Then young men will prove true”. Awkward, to be sure, but more comprehensible.

Jim Causley sang Down by the Old Riverside on his 2005 WildGoose CD Fruits of the Earth. He noted:

Sophie Legg from across the border was the source of this deceptively wicked song with its enticingly sweet tune. Some do find this one shocking but can I just say that I am not a misogynistic pig and remind yall it was learnt from a lady! I had the rare pleasure of hearing Sophie give a talk about her fascinating life at Wadebridge festival last summer (2004) and so I’d like to dedicate this one to her and all her clan of gorgeous singers.

Craig Morgan Robson sang Abroad As I Was Walking on their 2006 CD Stranded. and Carolyn Robson returned to it in 2009 on the WildGoose CD The Axford Five which features fifteen traditional English songs collected by George Gardiner in 1907 from five woman singers in Axford, Hampshire. They noted on the first album:

Collected by George Gardiner from Alfred Porter of Basingstoke (text) [VWML GG/1/10/589] and Mrs. Goodyear of Axford, who could remember the tune, but only the last verse [VWML GG/1/13/781] . The song pairs up a charmingly lyrical melody with an extraordinarily cruel story of betrayal of a young girl “scarce fourteen years of age”. The man’s retort is summed up by Frank Purslow in his notes on the song as “I would have married you if you hadn’t given in first.”

Annie Winter sang Abroad as I Was Walking in 2014 on Amsher’s album of songs collected by George Gardiner in Hampshire in between 1905 and 1909, Amsher Sings Hampshire Songs. They noted:

Sarah Goodyear, Axford 1907.
A song of innocent betrayal. The tune and last verse remembered from the singing of Mrs Goodyear. Gardiner collected the rest of the words from Alfred Porter of Basingstoke.

David Stavey sang Camden Town in 2015 on his Musical Traditions anthology Good Luck to the Journeyman. Rod Stradling noted:

This song, more usually known as Down by the Old Riverside or Lily White Hand, got its present title from its first publication in the FMJ in 1969, collected by John R. Baldwin, in Wootton, Oxfordshire, from a singer whose name was given only as ‘Mrs F. D.’. Her first line was “In Camden Town there lived a lass…” Even though this was a slightly different song (Roud 1414), Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger published versions under this title by both Nelson Ridley and William Hughes in Travellers’ Songs From England and Scotland, and the name seems to have stuck in some circles.

This was the ‘family song’ of the Brazil family in Gloucester, and was sung by every member of the family we know to have been recorded - see the 3-CD set Down by the Old Riverside.

It has 118 Roud entries, 36 of which are sound recordings. Almost all are from England, plus a few from the north of Ireland and North America. Gypsy names crop up frequently amongst the listed singers.

Lisa Knapp sang Lily White Hand on her 2017 CD Till April Is Dead. She commented:

From a CD of songs published by Musical Traditions Records collected from the Brazil family; a Romany travelling family hailing from South West England who have an excellent repertoire of traditional songs. The desperate situation of the tricked young lady and the chilling sensibility of ‘kind Sir’ along with the romantic imagery of the clear running stream, the big house, ‘the moon adorned’ and the golden hills betray this simple tune’s grisly ending.

Vic Legg sang Down by the Old Riverside on his and Thomas McCarthy’s 2017 album Jauling the Green Tober (Travelling the Green Roads).

Lyrics

May Bradley sings Down by the Riverside

As I walked out one bright summer’s morn
Down by the riverside
I met with a pretty fair young maid
Placing gently towards my side.

I took her by the lily white hand,
Kissed both her cheeks and her chin.
I took her down by the riverside
Just to spend one night with her.

“This is not the promise that you gave to me
Down by the riverside.
You promised that you would marry me
Make me your lovely wife.”

“Who’d think of marrying a girl like you
To make you my lawful wife?
You’d better go to your own mother’s home
Just to dry those tears away.”

“I’d rather go and drowned myself
Down in some lonesome place.”

Now he took her by ’er lily white hand,
Kissed both her cheeks and her chin.
He led her down by the riverside
There gentlye pushed her in.

O there she goes, oh there she goes
She’s going with the tide.
Instead of her having a watery grave,
Ah, she ought to have been my bride.

Fred Jordan sings Down by the Riverside

As I walked out one fine summer’s morn
Down by the riverside
I overtook a pretty fair maid
Pacing gently the waterside.

He took her by the lily-white hand
Kissed both her cheeks and chin
He took her by the riverside
And he gently pushed her in.

O there she goes, oh there she goes
She’s flowing away with the tide
Instead of having a watery grave
She ought to have been my bride.

The Brazil Family sings The Old Riverside

As I strolled out one May morning,
It was down by the old riverside;
’Twas there I met a fair young maid
And on her I placed my eye.

I asked her if she would take a walk
Down by the old riverside,
That there we might sit and talk a while,
Making her my lawful bride.

“No then, kind Sir, to get married to you,
My age it is too young.”
“The younger you are more better you is,
More fitting you are for me.
That I should say in my old days
I married my wife a maid.”

He took her home to his father’s house,
His lawful wife to be;
They laid there all that long night,
’Til daylight did repair.

All the first part of the night
The couple sport and played,
And the rest part of the night
Close in his arms she laid.

When that long night was past and gone
And daylight did repair;
The young man rose and put on his clothes,
Saying, “Fare thee well my dear.”

“This is not the promise you made unto me
Down by the old riverside;
You promised that you would marry me
And make me your lawful bride.”

“For to promise to marry a girl like you,
Is not such a thing I would do;
You go home to your own dear mother’s house
And there you cry your fill;
And tell them all what I’ve done to you,
It was done by your own good will.”

“Do you think I’d go home to my own mother’s house
To bring her trouble and disgrace?
I’d rather go and drown myself
And sleep in some lonesome place.”

Now he catched hold of her lily-white hand
And he kissed both cheek and chin;
He took her down by the old riverside
And he gently pushed her in.

See how she swims, see how she goes,
She goes floating with the tide,
’Tis the room of a maid to have a watery grave,
She had no right to have been my bride.

Now I’ll sail away to some other foreign part
Where another girl will take my eye,
Where no-one will know the deed I’ve done
To the girl I left behind.

I’ve got a root in my father’s garden,
Some do call it rue;
For fishes swims and swallows dive,
Young men they don’t prove true.

Harry Cox sings The Grand Hotel

He’d met her by the riverside
And kissed both cheek and chin.
He took her to the grand hotel
To spend the night within.

She said, “Kind sir, I’m much too young
To spend the night with thee.”
“The younger you are the better you’d be
To spend the night with me.”

The deed was done; the night was o’er;
The moon shone bright and clear.
The young man rose, put on his clothes
And said, “Goodbye, my dear.”

“It’s not the promise you made to me
Down by the riverside.
You promised that you’d marry me
And I should be your bride.”

“I can’t go to my parents’ house
In shame and such disgrace.
I’d rather go and drown myself
Down in some lonely place.”

He took her to the riverside;
He kissed both cheek and chin.
He took her by the lily-white hand
And gently pushed her in.

See how she plunge; see how she float
A-going with the tide.
This fair young maid I’ve drownded here
That should have been my bride.

Come all fair maids take warning by me
Down by the riverside,
And never court a rich man’s son
For you’ll never be his bride.

Harry Upton sings In Wayward Town

In Wayward Town there lived a maid
So beautiful, young and fair
’Til a young man came and courted her
And drew her in a snare [Repeats last line]

This young man promised he’d marry the girl
But he proved to be a false young man
He took her to a large hotel
And the night they slept within

The morning came, the stars shone bright
The moon shone bright and clear
This young man arose, a-putting on his clothes
Said “Farewell, my love, farewell”

“That’s not the promise you made to me
O down by the river side
You promised that you’d marry, marry me
And make me your own true bride”

“Do you think I could marry a girl like you
So easily led astray
You’d better go back, to your dear old mother’s side
And tell her the reason why”

“Do you think I’ll go back to my dear old mother’s side
And show her my disgrace
I’d rather go and drown myself
In a lonely and quiet place”

He took her by her lily-white hand
He kissed both cheeks and chin
He led her to the riverside
And he gently pushed her in

Away she goes, away she goes
She’s floating away with the tide
Instead of having that watery grave
She ought to been me own true bride

Now I must go to a far-off land
Another bride to find
Where no-one knows the deed I’ve done
This dreadful and awful crime

Now come you young ladies, a warning take
Never you get led astray
If any young man entices you
Let your answer be always nay

Mary Lozier sings Last May Morn

As I walked out one bright May morning
Down by the riverside
I spied a fair young couple a-courting
It filled my heart with pride.

He wooed her gently as lovers have
Since this world begun.
He asked her if she would marry him
She answered, “I am too young.”

“The younger you are, the better,” he said
“The younger, the better for me.
For I will swear to you, my dear
I’ll marry no other but thee.”

They spent the day as lovers do
In sporting and in play
As evening come, his conquest won,
Close in his arms she lay.

The night wore on and morning came
The morning dawn so clear
That young man arose, put on his clothes
Said, “Fare ye well, my dear.”

“Is this the promise you made to me
Down by the riverside?
You promised that you would marry me
And make me your own dear bride.”

“This isn’t the promise I made to you
Down by the riverside
For I could never marry a girl
As easily fooled as you.

“So go back to your father’s house
Sit down and cry your fill
Whenever you think of the way I’ve done
But blame your own good will.”

There’s trees that grow in father’s garden
Some people call them yews
There’s fish that dies from swallowing flies
There’s no young man who’ll prove true.

Ron Spicer sings The Lily-White Hand

As Johnny walked out one midsummer morn
Down by the riverside,
Twas there he spied a pretty fair maid
Who was pleasing to his mind.

“Good morning to you, my pretty fair maid,
Come sing me your lovers’ song.
For I should like to marry you.”
“Kind sir, I am too young.”

“The younger you are, the better for me,
That in some future day
I may think within myself
That I married my wife a babe.”

He took her by the lily white hand,
He kissed both cheek and chin,
He took her to a very large house
To spend the night within.

The night being passed, the morning came,
The sun shone bright and clear.
The young man arose, put on his clothes,
Saying, “fare thee well my dear.”

“And that’s not the promise you gave to me
Down by the riverside.
You promised that you would marry me,
Make me your lawful bride.”

“If that is the promise I gave to you,
It’s more than I can do,
To think of marrying a poor girl like you
So easily led astray.

“So you may go back to your mother’s house,
Then you may cry your fill
And think what you have brought on yourself
All by your own good will.”

“I will not go home to my mother’s house
To make any grief or distress.
But I will go and drown myself
All in some lonesome place.”

He took her by the lily white hand,
He kissed both cheek and chin.
He took her to the riverside
And he gently pushed her in.

David Stavey sings Camden Town

As I went out one May morning
Down some clear running stream
Who should I spy but a sweet pretty maid
She was a-pleasing to my mind.

I said to her “My sweet pretty maid
Will you sing me a true lover’s song?
And if it is true I will marry you
O I’ll make you my own true wife.”

So he took her by oh the lily white hand
He kissed both her cheeks and her chin
He took her to some very large house
And she slept the night with him.

Now the moon being gone, oh the sun at dawn
The sun on the golden hill
This young man he arose, he put on his clothes
Saying “Fare you well my dear.”

“Now that ain’t the promise you made to me
Down by that clear running stream.
You promised that you would marry me
And make me your own true wife.”

“But how could I marry a girl like you
You’re too easily led astray
You’d better go back to your mother’s house
And cry all your tears away.”

“But how could I go back to
My dear old mother’s house
And leave her in shame and disgrace?
I’d rather go to some very large brook
And I’ll throw my body in.”

So he took her by O the lily white hand
He kissed both her cheek and her chin
He took her to some very large brook
And he threw her body in.

Now there she goes, oh see how she goes
A-floating away on the tide.
Instead of that young girl having a watery grave
She ought to’ve been my bride.

Now I’ll go away to some other foreign land
Another girl for me
Where no-one shall know of the trouble I have done
Save the girl that courted me.

So come all you young girls and a warning take by me
Don’t you ever be led astray
If any young man asks to come your way
Let your heart be miles away.

Lisa Knapp sings Lily White Hand

As I walked out one May morning,
Down by the old riverside;
Who should I see but a sweet pretty maid,
She was peasing to my mind.

I said to her, “My sweet pretty maid,
Won’t you sing me a true lover’s song?
And if it is true I’ll marry you
And I’ll make you my own true wife.”

“O no, kind Sir, to get married to you,
My age it is too young.”
“The younger you are the better you’ll be,
To spend the night with me.”

He took her by the lily white hand,
Kissed her cheek and her chin;
He took her to some very large house
And the slept the night with him.

O the night being gone, and the moon adorned
The sun on the golden hill,
The young man rose, he put on his clothes,
Saying, “Fare thee well my dear.”

“Well, that’s not the promise you made to me,
Down by the clear running stream;
You promised that you would marry me
And make me your own true wife.”

“How could I marry a girl like you,
So easily led astray?
You’d better go back to your mother’s house
And cry all your fears away.”

He took hold of her by the lily white hand,
Kissed both her cheek and her chin;
He took her to some very large brook
And he gently pushed her in.

Now it’s I’ll sail away to some other foreign land,
Some other girl will I find;
Then I can say in my old age
I married my wife a maid.