This is the first song in Songs of the West, and I chose it for the title of this, my first C.D. The tune and words come from James Parsons who had learnt the song from his father 'The Singing Machine'. In his notes Sabine is inclined to think that the song dates from the time of James I or Charles I. Concertina accompaniment by John Kirkpatrick.

Another song taken down from James Parsons. Sabine gives references to broadsides that have different endings, and notes that the Devon tune is of a much earlier character. The song is meant to be sung by a male/female duo. Accordian accompaniment by John Kirkpatrick.

This song, with a story, (cante fable) Due to it's sexual content, which would have shocked the Victorian middle classes which Sabines song book was marketed for. We find it in the notes to the songs in the back of Songs of the West. Sabine kept the tune and replaced it with a more acceptable song to be sung and played in the drawing rooms of England titled Come to my Window. It was taken down from John Woodrich; who told Sabine how he heard it in an ale-house near Bideford in 1864, from an old man, who recited a tale, in which the song comes in snatches. He had been soaked by the rain, and he told the tale as he dried himself by the kitchen fire. Story read by Lisa Nolan.

Sabine wrote that, this charming ballad was taken down, words and music, from J. Masters of Bradstone. The Broadside versions that were published are all very corrupt. The version of old Masters is given exactly as he sang it, and it is but one instance out of many of the superiority of the ballads handed down traditionally in the country by unlettered men to those picked up from the ballad-mongers employed by the Broadside publishers.

F.W. Bussell took this down from Edmund Fry of Lydford. Sabine noted that the last verse had to be modified to
O' where be your characters
Ye maidens brisk and gay
O they be a swallowed
We've drunk them clean away.
Some of Sabine's daughters had learnt the song ( before it had been 'modified') and sang at a fete at Lew Trenchard one summer. Among the audience of locals there were several gentlewomen who must have been greatly shocked by such coarse words from the beautiful Baring-Gould girls. Which created a demand for smelling salts.

This song was sent to Sabine by Captain Hall Munro of Newton Abbott, sung to him by an old man there. In the notes on the songs in SOTW there is no mention of the source singer or the year it was collected. But, the air of Death and the Lady Sabine regarded as being an old tune. The song was also collected from Roger Hannaford.

F.W. Bussell took the words and music for this song from Edmund Fry of Lydford, John Bennett of Chagford and shepherd John Hunt of Postbridge. The Pepysion collection and the Roxburgh Ballads have entries with the same theme.

This version I learned from the singing of the late Burt Lloyd in the late 1960's. Sabine collected a version from Sam Fone of Mary Tavy titled Arthur Le Bride, with words almost identical to that of Arthur McBride.
Taken down from Sam Fone, of Mary Tavy, by Mr. Bussell, in 1892. Sam told us that this was his father's favourite song. He had learned it from his father when he was quite a child.

Sabine collected this version from James Olver, a tanner from Launceston. James came from strict Methodist parents and he and his sister were forbidden to sing anything but hymns. But young James and his sister would leave their house by their bedroom window, and sneak away to listen to the men singing in a near-by pub.

Taken down from James Parsons. After the second verse he broke away into 'The Seeds of Love.' Joseph Dyer, of Mawgan in Pyder, sang the same ballad or song to the same tune, and in what I believe to be the complete form of words.
Here I sing Joseph Dyers version which I added the first verse as an extra verse to end the song.

This was the first of Sabine's songs I learnt back in the 1960's. The ringers mentioned in the song now lie in Egloshayle Churchyard, where their gravestones can be found. Egloshayle lies on the east bank of the river Camel, facing the town of Wadebridge on the west bank, just a short distance up river from the estuary at Padstow.

Collected from James Townsend of Holne, who learned it from his grandfather, William Ford who died at about seventy in 1887.
The reference to Fieldings crew! Henry Fielding was appointed chief magistrate of Westminster in 1748. After Henry's death in 1754, his blind half-brother, Sir John Fielding, who died in 1780, carried on his work of fighting crime.

Melody taken down by W. Crossing, from an old moor man, to 'Rosemary Lane.' Roger Luxton and James Parsons also sang 'Rosemary Lane' to the same air. The words are objectionable. We therefore thought it well to put to our melody entirely fresh words to be included in S. O. T. W.
But, Sabine did keep the original words as taken down from the singers as you hear me sing on this track.

This version of The Broken Token Story I have sung for many years and onThis track is my version of the 'The Broken Token' the song that Sabine and Henry Fleetwood Sheperd took down in the winter of 1888 from Robert Hard of South Brent. Hards version has a different title, with almost identical words to which I sing. ce again the words are so similar to that collected from Robert Hard, it is a case of change through the oral tradition.

Another song from Robert Hard I have sung for many years! Sabine and Henry Fleetwood Sheperd took the song down from Hard but he sang a song titled The Hearty Goodfellow, with almost identical words to those I sing in Bold Gambling Boy. Hards version is in S.O.T.W. Has the title The Hearty Goodfellow

F. W. (Freddie) Bussell collected this song from Mary Trease of Menheniot in South East Cornwall. The song is dated prior to the American War of Independence. A Silver Mine started working in Menheniot in the 1880's. Maybe a Cornish miner returning from abroad, maybe seeking a wife, brought this song with him.