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> June Tabor > Songs > Ten Thousand Miles

The Turtle Dove / Ten Thousand Miles

[ Roud 422 ; Ballad Index Wa097 , R793 ; trad.]

This parting song is known as The Turtle Dove, Ten Thousand Miles, and with a lot of other names. It is not easy separating the versions because they share many floating verses.

A.L. Lloyd sang Turtle Dove unaccompanied in 1956 on his Tradition album The Foggy Dew and Other Traditional English Love Songs. He commented in the liner notes:

Around 1770, leaflets bearing the words of this song were being hawked about the fairgrounds of England and Scotland. Milkmaids and horse-handlers would paste such leaflets on the walls of dairy and stable to learn the songs as they worked. Now and then, the place would get a new coat of whitewash and a fresh layer of song sheets. Robert Burns obtained one of the Turtle Dove leaflets (it still exists, with his name scrawled on it in a boyish hand). Years later, he remade the song into his famous lyric, My Love Is Like a Red Red Rose. Beautiful as Burns' song is, it is no better than the present version, evolved by country singers in Dorset.

Peter Bellamy sang The Turtle Dove unaccompanied on his first solo LP, Mainly Norfolk (1968). He commented in the album's liner notes:

The songs which complete each side of the record are both “foreign” [i.e. not collected in Norfolk] — the reason for including them being that I like them too much not to. Both were collected by Cecil Sharp and published in his Folksongs from Somerset: The Turtle Dove from Mrs Glover of Huish Episcopi and The Saucy Sailor from Mr Thomas Hendy of Ilminster.

Three versions of Turtle Dove are also on the 1986 LP An Hour with Cecil Sharp and Ashley Hutchings, a cylinder recording of Mr Pendfold, landlord of the “Plough Inn”, Rusper, Sussex, by Ralph Vaughan Williams; a version sung by Martin Carthy; and a guitar-only version played by Martin Carthy, Richard Thompson and Dave Whetstone.

Nic Jones learned Ten Thousand Miles from A.L. Lloyd and sang it in 1977 on his third album, The Noah's Ark Trap, which sadly is unavailable now.

This is Nic Jones singing Ten Thousand Miles on May 28, 2011 at the Queen Elizabeth Hall:

Eliza Carthy took Ten Thousand Miles from Nic Jones and recorded it in 1996 for her CD Heat Light & Sound, together with the Morris jig Bacca Pipes. This track was also included in the Mrs Casey Records anthology Evolving Tradition 2. Eliza commented in her original album's sleeve notes:

A.L. Lloyd sent a version of this to Nic Jones and he recorded it, and since then not many people have done it. So here it is, with Bacca Pipes which is a Morris jig (thanks Bampton). There are lots of versions of 10.000 Miles in the Journal of the Folk Song Society.

Eliza Carthy recorded this song for a second time with six additional verses for her album Red. On this recording she was accompanied by Sam Thomas, drums, percussion; Barnaby Stradling, electric bass; Martin Green, piano accordion; Oliver Knight, electric guitar; Ed Boyd, acoustic guitar; and Lucy Adams, vocals. It was later included in the Topic Records anthology The Acoustic Folk Box. Finally, Eliza recorded this song for a third time in 2004 with the Oysterband at The Big Session Vol. 1, where it is followed by the Hungarian March.

June Tabor sang Ten Thousand Miles on her 1992 album Angel Tiger. This recording was also included in her 4CD anthology Always.

James Fagan and Nancy Kerr sang Turtle Dove in 1997 on their Fellside CD Starry Gazy Pie. They commented in their liner notes:

A song made up of tags from other ballads, collected in Kentucky from “Singing Willie” Nolan. The words are more or less as E.K. Wells printed in The Ballad Tree, but Nancy altered the melody and time signature, and added a final verse.

In 1998, Martin Carthy recorded Turtle Dove again for the trio CD Wood—Wilson—Carthy. It was also recorded by Coope Boyes & Simpson in 2005 for their album Triple Echo: Songs collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams, George Butterworth and Percy Grainger.

Tim Laycock sang The Turtle Dove on his 2010 CD of folk songs and tunes from Dorset, Sea Strands. He noted:

This lovely song was included by Frank Purslow in Marrow Bones, his first selection from the folk song manuscripts of the Hammond Brothers that did so much to popularise the Dorset repertoire in folk clubs all over the world. Frank collated three versions of the song from different Dorset singers; one of them, Mr Bridle, lived in Stratton, just across the river Frome from where I now live.

Brian Peters sang Ten Thousand Miles in 2010 on his CD Gritstone Serenade. He commented in his liner notes:

Also known as The Turtle Dove, this song seems to have originated as as 17^th-century broadside, but thereafter its history becomes very tangled, involving traditional North American love songs like The Blackest Crow and A-Roving on a Winter's Night as well as Robert Burns' My Love Is Like a Red Red Rose, all of which borrow verses from the original. The tune I use was notated by George Gardiner from George Blake in Sd. Denis, Southampton, in 1906 but, since Mr Blake remembered only one verse, I cherry-picked from several other sources to put together this version.

The Askew Sisters sang The Turtle Dove in 2010 on their CD Through Lonesome Woods. They commented in their liner notes:

We begin this piece with a short rendition of Valentine from the Ascot-under-Wychwood morris tradition, although we used to dance to it in the Fieldtown style. Coincidently, the title of this tune fits very well with the song that follows it, a beautiful version of the Turtle Dove sung by Edith Sartin (a distant relative of well known folkie Paul Sartin) in Corscombe, Dorset in 1906 (although we have slightly altered the tune). It was collected by brothers Henry and Robert Hammond and can be found in the reissued Marrow Bones book.

Jon Boden sang Turtle Dove as the March 25, 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He noted in his blog:

This is one of my favourite songs from James Fagan and Nancy Kerr's repertoire. James and Nancy were the first professional musicians I ever met and I was somewhat in awe of them. I still am, truth be told.

Alden Patterson and Dashwood sang Ten Thousand Miles on their 2018 CD By the Night. They noted:

A traditional English folk song which we learnt while on holiday in Western Ireland. This version was inspired by a recording by Nic Jones from 1977. We changed the melody and the lyrical arrangement.

Compare to this song the related A-Roving on a Winter's Night and their Canadian cousin, Mary Ann.

Lyrics

Acknowledgements

Transcribed by Wolfgang Hell from the singing of Martin Carthy.