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The Maid Freed From the Gallows / The Prickly Bush / The Prickle-Holly Bush / Prickle-Eye Bush / The Golden Ball

[ Roud 144 ; Master title: The Maid Freed From the Gallows ; Child 95 ; G/D 2:248 ; Ballad Index C095 ; Highwayman at Old Songs ; VWML HAM/5/36/30 , GG/1/13/811 , CJS2/10/2559 ; GlosTrad Roud 144 ; Wiltshire 942 , 1071 ; DT HANGMAN1 , HANGMAN3 ; Mudcat 62077 ; trad.]

Lucy E. Broadwood, J.A. Fuller Maitland: English County Songs Bob Copper: Songs & Southern Breezes John Jacob Niles: The Ballad Book of John Jacob Niles Roy Palmer: Everyman’s Book of English Country Songs Frank Purslow: The Wanton Seed James Reeves: The Idiom of the People Cecil J. Sharp: One Hundred English Folksongs

Charlie Poole recorded The Highwayman on 9 September 1926 in New York (Columbia 15160-D, May 1927). Leadbelly recorded The Gallis Pole on 1 April 1939 in New York too (Musicraft 227). Both recordings were included in 2015 on the Nehi anthology of British songs in the USA, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean. Steve Roud noted:

This song has an interesting and complicated history because it existed in the Anglo-American tradition as a prose folktale, a cante fable (mixed spoken and sung), a dramatic children’s game, and a ballad in a wide variety of forms and, as Leadbelly’s version shows, also crossed over into African-American. The earliest known version of the ballad in English dates to about 1770, but, as Child points out in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, one needs to go to versions from other European countries to get the full story. The ‘maid’ has been captured by corsairs, or pirates, and after each of her family members refuses in turn to pay her ransom, her sweetheart (or husband) comes up with the money and all ends happily.

Jean Ritchie sang The Hangman Song in 1954 on her Elektra album Kentucky Mountain Songs. She noted:

This is one of the oldest song stories, and one that has almost as many versions as Barbara Allen. In the earlier variants, the legend is of The Maid Freed From the Gallows (Child 95), existing not only in England but throughout Northern and Southern Europe and in some parts of Asia. Somewhere along the line, the victim changed from a maid to a man but the story remains the same. Our family sings it in a down-to-earth, mountain way which slights the tune and wastes no words in getting the tale told.

The Prickly Bush is a variant of The Briery Bush, or The Maid Freed From the Gallows (#95 in F.J. Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads) with the protagonist being male. A.L. Lloyd sang The Prickly Bush in 1956 on his and Ewan MacColl’s Riverside anthology The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Volume II which was reissued in 2011 on his Fellside CD Bramble Briars and Beams of the Sun A.L. Lloyd also recorded it, accompanied by Alf Edwards playing concertina, in 1964 for his and Ewan MacColl’s album English and Scottish Folk Ballads. He noted:

In the opinion of many scholars this is among the oldest, most typical and most interesting of ballads. It has turned up in countless versions in the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, in Central Europe, Hungary, Rumania and Russia, and the ballad specialist Francis J. Child considered that the best version of all is Sicilian. It has enjoyed very wide currency in the British Isles and also in the USA, where it has been described as “easily the favourite of all the traditional ballads among the Negroes.” In many versions, the story tells of a young woman captured by pirates or brigands; father, mother, brother, sister refuse to pay ransom, but the lover sets her free. In earlier forms of the ballad, the girl is condemned to die for the loss of a golden ball (or golden key, either signifying the girl’s honour which, when lost, can only restored by her lover). There is a folk tale, once well-known in England, in which a stranger gives a girl a golden ball. If she loses it, she is to be hanged. While playing with the ball she does lose it. At the gallows, her kindred refuse to help, but the lover recovers the ball after terrible adventures in the house of ill-omen where it had rolled. It seems that verses from The Prickly Bush (also called The Maid Freed From the Gallows) were sung in the course of telling the story. The losing of the golden ball and the subsequent scene at the gallows used to form a children’s game in Lancashire in the 19^th century, again accompanied by the song. In Missouri, the song is used as part of a story of a Negro girl with a magic golden ball that will make her white. From a similar cante-fable, the admired Negro singer Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly) evolved a version that became well-known after it appeared on a commercial disc. Many layers of folklore, extending to very primitive times, may be revealed by deep study of this ancient ballad, in which, at some stage and in certain versions, the condemned person has changed sex and become a man who is freed by his girlfriend.

The form of the ballad is likewise interesting. It is frequently suggested that the ballad originated as choral dances. That is, a group formed a ring and danced round. A member of the group sang a single line or set of lines, and the rest came in with a refrain. It has been further suggested that ballads were actually created in the course of this operation, with various members of the group improvising sequences (alternated with refrain) until the ballad story was carried to a conclusion. Now, not many ballads, as we know them, show signs of this kind of communal creation. But The Prickly Bush, with its extremely simple construction, may well have come into being in such a way. Few ballads show such clear signs of a primitive dramatic structure as this one, though the major tune, collected by Lucy Broadwood in Buckinghamshire, is probably fairly modern.

A 1948 radio transcription by Lead Belly, The Gallows Pole, was possibly the version mentioned above by Lloyd. It was included in 1975 on the anthology Electric Muse: The Story of Folk into Rock.

In 1951, Peter Kennedy recorded for the BBC Walter Lucas and villagers of Sixpenny Handley, Dorset singing The Prickly Holly Bush. This was released on Alan Lomax’ The Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: England.

Julia Scaddon of Chideock, Dorset, sang The Prickelly Bush (The Maid Freed From the Gallows) in 1952 to Peter Kennedy (BBC recording 18694). This recording was included on the anthology The Child Ballads 1 (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 4; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1968).

Bob Copper collected The Prickle-Holly Bush, with words similar to The Watersons’ below, but a completely different tune, in about 1954 from Fred Hewett, of Mapledurwell [pronounced ’Mapley-well’], Hampshire: see Chapter 16, pp. 135-140, of Songs and Southern Breezes for the details; and the appendix for the words. This recording was also included in 1998 on the Topic anthology O’er His Grave the Grass Grew Green (The Voice of the People Series Volume 3).

Frank Proffitt sang Hangman to Anne and Frank Warner in 1960. This recording was included in 2000 on the Appleseed anthology of “the music of Frank Proffitt and North Carolina”, Nothing Seems Better to Me (The Warner Collection Volume II).

Sisue Phaidie Oig from Donegal sang The Weary Gallows (The Maid Freed From the Gallows) in a recording made in 1968/9 by Hugh Shields. This was published in 1975 on the Leader album Folk Ballads from Donegal and Derry Collected by Hugh Shields.

The Druids sang The Prickly Bush in 1971 on their Argo album Burnt Offering. They noted:

This song belongs to the range of “Chorus From the Gallows” songs. It was quite usual for a condemned man to buy his life, but it was often a problem for his family to raise the “Fee”. This gentleman was very lucky to have a patient executioner! Versions vary as to the number people who are possible benefactors, but it is always the faithful lover that rescues the apprehensive man from the gallows.

Asa Martin sang The Highwayman to Mark Wilson and Gus Meade at Irvine, Kentucky in autumn 1972, and Sarah Gunning sang Hangman to Mark Wilson in Medford, Massachusetts on 5 August 1974. Both recordings were included in 2007 on the Musical Traditions anthology of folk songs of the Upper South, Meeting’s a Pleasure Volume 2. Mark Wilson noted on Asa Martin’s recording:

Asa almost certainly acquired this odd blending of Hangman, Slack Your Rope and parts of As I Sat Down to Play Coon Can (Roud 114) from Charlie Poole’s Columbia recording (Co 15260; reissued on Columbia Legacy), for the texts are virtually identical. Asa’s unusual parlor guitar setting is his own, however. When American traditional musicians claim to ‘have written songs’, they have often framed a composite through juxtaposition, for some conservatism about wholesale textual innovation seems to inhibit most rural singers. Surprisingly, Poole recorded a more orthodox Hangman, Hangman, Slack the Rope a few years later (Co 15385).

and on Sarah Gunning’s:

In contrast, here is Child 95 (book title: The Maid Freed From the Gallows) in its full glory. It is one of the few of the classic British ballads to have regularly passed into black tradition as well, as Sarah and Jim’s good friend Leadbelly’s Gallis Pole energetically illustrates.

Bill Whiting sang The Prickle Holly Bush in his home in Longcot, Berkshire, in 1972 to Mike Yates. This recording was included in 2015 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs from the Mike Yates collection, I Wish There Was No Prisons. Mike Yates noted:

Bill Dore [sic] was reluctant to sing this to me, saying that “there’s nothing to it” and he only sang the first verse. Later I managed to get the rest of the text down on paper, and these verses are added [in brackets]. This is, of course, a fragment of an ancient ballad and I can do no better than to let A.L. Lloyd explain the story [see above in the English and Scottish Folk Ballads notes].

Derek Sarjeant and Hazel King sang The Prickly Bush on their 1976 album Hills & Dales. They noted:

This story or ballad is one of the most widely distributed in the world. Subsequent to its publication in the Folk Song Society Journals, many more variants have been found in the USA. No. 95 in the Child Ballad collection under the title Maid Freed From the Gallows.

In 1981, The Watersons sang The Prickle-Holly Bush with Martin Carthy leading on their album Green Fields. This track was included in 2004 on the Watersons’ 4 CD anthology Mighty River of Song. A live recording from the Triplex Theatre, Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York City on 4 December 1987 was finally made available in 2001 on The Carthy Chronicles. This version has a quite unusual Watersons line-up: Lal, Norma, Mike and Martin (who is singing lead as on the original LP version) are joined by Mike’s daughter Rachel. A.L. Lloyd noted on the first recording:

A book could be written about this song. There’s a hint of the story in Euripides’ Alkestis produced in 438 BC. But of course it wasn’t till many centuries later that the tale became versified and turned into a ballad. It was spread all over Europe in several forms. In Hungary, a yellow snake fastens itself to a girl’s breast, and neither father, mother, sister nor brother will take it away, till up steps the bold sweetheart and does the trick. Further east, a girl is captured by pirates, and, again, her family, one by one, refuse to pay the ransom, but eventually the sweetheart pays it. So on through the ages till our own day. American blacks took to the song (Lead Belly had a good version), and after the Watts ghetto riots of 1965, a set appeared in which a young black looter appears in court to face a heavy fine or the “gallows twine.” The rescuer in this case is neither father, mother nor sweetheart but a social worker who arrives with the money just in time. As to the “prickle-holly bush” refrain, not all British versions carry it. The symbology-nutters find deep meaning in it again, something to do with somebody’s loss of virginity (what, again!) but if it means anything, it is probably merely as synonym for an awkward fix. The version here, with its fine tune, was recorded by Mike Yates from Bill Whiting, of Longcot, Berks.

Ray Driscoll sang Prickelie Bush, “another song learned from Shropshire singers”, to Gwilym Davies in Dulwich, London, on 27 October 1993. This recording was published in 2008 on his posthumous anthology Wild, Wild Berry.

Drinkers Drouth sang The Prickly Bush on their 1982 album When the Kye Comes Hame.

Nic Jones sang Prickly Bush on his 2001 anthology CD Unearthed, a collection of concert, club and studio performances recorded prior to his accident 1982.

Chris Timson and Anne Gregson sang Hangman on their 1996 WildGoose album Peaceful Harbour. They noted:

An American version of the British song Prickly Bush. We have often wondered just what the hero could have done to upset his family so much.

Steeleye Span recorded The Prickly Bush in 1996 for their album Time. The words are the usual traditional ones and the verse melody was written by Bob Johnson. The album notes comment:

This story is allegorical, the gold signifying the maiden’s honour; which when lost can only be restored by one person—her lover. Gold seems from early times to have been the symbol of integrity, appearing in Danish ballads as the virgin’s insignia. So too in the Scottish Ballad of Tam Lin—“I forbid you maidens all / that wear gold in your hair.”

The “prickly bush” is familiar in English and Scottish ballads as the symbol of unhappy love. The real question is—do we remember the lessons learned whilst in the prickly bush?

German duo Sperris & Wicca sang The Prickley Buch in 1999 on their eponymous first album Sperris & Wicca.

Jon Boden learnt Prickle-Eye Bush “around the campfire from the good people of Forest School Camps—upholders of one of the few genuine oral singing traditions left in England.” In 2003, he and John Spiers recorded it for their album Bellow and a year later with their group Bellowhead for E.P.onymous. They also performed it in 2007 Live at Shepherds Bush Empire. This video shows them at Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2008:

Jon Boden also sang Prickle-Eye Bush as the 1 October 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. And Spiers & Boden re-recorded it in 2010/11 for their CD The Works.

Mary Humphreys and Anahata sang The Maid Freed From the Gallows in 2004 on their WildGoose album Floating Verses. Mary Humphreys noted:

The tune was collected by Cecil Sharp from Mr W. Major of Flamborough, East Yorkshire on 22 December 1910 [VWML CJS2/10/2559] . The text is collated from other texts collected by CJS. I love this song about a dysfunctional family, where all the relatives are coming one at a time for a grand day out to enjoy the sight of their daughter/sibling being hanged. Anahata takes great delight in playing snatches of Morris tunes between the verses that are totally in-keeping with the jolly atmosphere that is built up. Dave and Gina [Holland] help create a carnival mood with the fiddle and recorder.

In earlier centuries hanging was a public spectacle that was regarded as an entertainment, and that is exactly the picture I have in my mind’s eye when singing this song.

Jim Causley sang The Pricklie Bush in 2005 both on his WildGoose album Fruits of the Earth and on the English part of the project Song Links 2: A Celebration of English Traditional Songs and Their American Variants. Tim Eriksen sang the corresponding American variant The Maid Freed From the Gallows on this album. Jim Causley noted on his album:

I learnt this classic song as a kid from one of Mum’s Judy Collins LPs. I wasn’t planning on recording it for this CD but one day I happened to sing it to James [Dumbelton] and he remarked what a lovely minor tune it had! To which I said “What?! It’s the most major tune in the world!!” He proved me wrong with his fantastic accompaniment and Im very glad he did. This one’s for my own dear family who are a lot more compassionate than the family in the song!

Peggy Seeger sang Hangman at her 70^th birthday celebration at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, on 29 May 2005. A recording of this concert was released in 2007 on her CD Three Score and Ten.

Elizabeth LaPrelle sang Hangman on her 2007 album Lizard in the Spring. She noted:

This version of the Child Ballad, Maid Freed From the Gallows, comes to us from the singing of Frank Proffitt as collected by Anne and Frank Warner.

Rubus sang a variant song called Golden Ball in 2008 on their CD Nine Witch Knots. This track was also included on the anthology of songs and tunes from Leigh Folk Festival 2008, Moonshine Murder Mountains & Mudflats. Emily Portman noted:

The Golden Ball, found in George Kinloch’s The Ballad Book is a variation of The Maid Freed From the Gallows, also known as Prickle Holly Bush. In this variation, as in the cantefable of the same title found in Joseph Jacobs’ More English Fairy Tales, the protagonist asks her family for her golden ball, often a symbol of lost youth. A linden tree replaces the usual gallows tree and, most striking of all, it is transformed from a tale of true love to a celebration of super-grannies; for it is non other than the grandmother who hobbles over the hills, clutching the golden ball, just in time to save her granddaughter’s neck. Kinloch gave no melody or source for his text, but I imagine a formidable old woman in a rocking chair impressing her grandchildren with the hangman’s marks still on her neck.

Stanley Robertson sang The Prickly Bush on his 2009 posthumous Elphinstone Institute anthology, The College Boy.

Amsher sang Prickly Bush on their 2014 album of songs collected by George Gardiner in Hampshire 1905-1909, Amsher Sings Hampshire Songs. Their version was collected from Charles Mould at Fareham in 1907 [VWML GG/1/13/811] .

Hannah Sanders sang Joshuay on her 2015 album Charms Against Sorrow. She noted:

This song came to me from the singing of friend and New England based mandolin and guitar shredder Flynn Cohen from his album Mellow Yell. A version of the ‘happy ending’ Hangman song found on both sides of the Atlantic. I love the groove of Flynn’s interpretation and have liberally borrowed it here.

A Different Thread sang The Prickly Bush on their 2018 album On a Whim.

Ninebarrow sang Prickle-Eye Bush on their 2018 CD The Waters and the Wild. They noted:

This song is right up there with the inspirational songs which first got us into folk singing. Jon [Whitley]’s dad had a copy of the 2005 and 2006 Folk Awards box sets—both of which made their way with Jon to Cardiff University when he studied there. Doing a degree in English Literature left him with, shall we say, an ample amount of time to explore his musical influences—and many of the songs on these two albums have been on repeat in our playlists ever since! Sometimes known as The Maid Freed From the Gallows, there are countless versions and it’s a well-known ballad in Scandinavia, Hungary, Romania and Russia as well as in the United States and British Isles. With so many versions out there, we’ve tried to do something a little bit different—although the opening half is a bit of a homage to our favourite version by Spiers & Boden.

This video shows Ninebarrow live at Costa Del Folk 2017:

Joshua Burnell sang Prickly Bush on 5 August 2017 in his “a folk song a week” song cycle. This was included in 2021 on his album Seasons Vol. 3 Summer.

Angeline Morrison accompanied by Jon Wilks sang Hangman in a 10 March 2024 live performance that was released in the same year on the Broadside Hacks cassette A Tribute to Les Cousins.

Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne sang Hangman Slack on the Line on his 2024 album of English Folk Song in the Caribbean and Black America, Play Up the Music!. He noted:

Variants of the Maid Freed From the Gallows ballad were particularly popular in the Black musical traditions of the Americas, with examples found across the US as well as in Jamaica and the Bahamas. This version comes from Dorothy Scarborough’s 1925 book On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs. Dorothy Scarborough (1878-1935) was the granddaughter of plantation owners and spent much of her life around formerly enslaved people that remained in the employment of her family. Her book is one of the earliest to explore the full gamut of African American folk song, with portions dedicated to blues, work songs, children’s songs, dance songs and ballads. This song was taken down by Edwin Swain from a group of children at a Black school in Florida. I have added the ‘prickle-holly’ chorus which appears commonly in English versions of the song but is largely absent from American ones. The instrumental is a dance melody, Tain’t Gwine Raine No Mo, also from Scarborough’s book.

Compare to this song the song Derry Gaol / The Streets of Derry (Roud 896; Laws L11) which has a similar plot.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd sings The Prickly Bush

“O hangman, hold your hand,” he cried,
“Oh, hold it for a while,
I think I see my own dear father
Coming over the yonder style.”

“O father, have you brought me gold
And will you set me free?
Or have you come to see me hung
All on this high gallows tree?”

“Oh no, I have not brought thee gold,
And I’ll not set thee free,
For I am come for to see you hung,
All on that high gallows tree.”

Oh, the prickly bush, the prickly bush,
It pricked my heart full sore
And if ever I get out of that prickly bush
I’ll never get in any more.

[Repeat for his mother and brother; then his sweetheart, who responds:]

“O yes, I’ve brought you gold,” she cried,
“And I will set you free,
For I would never see you hung
All on that old gallows tree.”

Oh, the prickly bush, the prickly bush,
It pricked my heart full sore
And now that I’m out of that prickly bush
I’ll never get in any more.

Asa Martin sings The Highwayman

I went down to the old depot
To see that train go by,
Thought I saw that woman I love,
Hang down her head and cry.

The night was dark and stormy
And it surely looked like rain.
Not a friend this wide world o’er
And no one knew my name.

“Wait, Mister Judge, wait, Mister Judge,
Just wait a little while,
I think I see that woman I love,
And she’s walked for miles and miles.”

“Dear girl, have you brought me silver,
Or have you brought me gold?
Have you walked these long, long miles
To see me from the hangman’s pole?”

She walked up to that scaffold,
She untied my hands,
Whispered low in the hangman’s ear,
“I love this highway man.”

“I love this highway man, poor girl,
I love this highway man.”
She whispered low in the hangman’s ear,
“I love this highway man.”

Bill Whiting sings The Prickle Holly Bush

“Oh, stop your horse,” cried George,
“Oh stop it for a while,
For I think I can see my mother
A-coming over yonder stile.

“Oh mother have you got any gold?
Or silver to set me free?
And to keep my body from the cold gaol wall
And my neck from the high gallows tree.”

Chorus:
Oh the prickle-holly bush,
how it pricks, pricks, pricks
And it pricks my heart quite sore
And if ever I get out of the prickle-holly bush
I’ll never get in there anymore.”

“Oh, stop your horse,” cried George,
Oh stop it for a while,
For I think I can see my father
A-coming over yonder stile.

“Oh father have you got any gold?
Or silver to set me free?
And to keep my body from the cold gaol wall
And my neck from the high gallows tree.”

“No I’ve not brought any gold
Nor silver to set you free.
But I have come for to see you hang,
Oh hang upon the high gallows tree.

Similarly: sister, brother

“Oh, stop your horse,” cried George
Oh stop it for a while,
For I think I can see my sweetheart
A-coming over yonder stile.

“Oh sweetheart have you brought me any gold?
Or silver to set me free?
And to keep my body from the cold gaol wall
And my neck from the high gallows tree.”

“Yes I have brought you gold
And silver to set you free,
And I’ve not come for to see you hang
Oh hang upon the high gallows tree.”

Sarah Gunning sings Hangman

“Oh, hangman, hangman, hold your horses, hold them for a while,
I think I see my mother’s face, come riding many a mile.”