Bonny Paisley

DESCRIPTION: The singer regrets "leaving of my sweetheart In Paisley behind." He wishes he were in Paisley where the weavers "are clever young blades" and lasses "despise all other trades." He'd build her a bower and be her weaver.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1795 ("From a Chap copy," according to Logan-APedlarsPack)
KEYWORDS: homesickness courting separation weaving nonballad
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #32, p. 2, "Bonny Paisley" (1 text)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 405-406, "Bonny Paisley"
ST Gre0032 (Partial)
Roud #5638
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian Harding B 22(381), "A New Song" ("Over hills and high mountains"), unknown, no date)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Portmore" (theme and "shines where it stands") and references there
cf. "The Wandering Maiden" (opening verse: "Over hills and high mountains")
cf. "Shrowsbury For Me" (line of text: "Of all the towns in ---, --- is for me.")
NOTES [173 words]: Logan-APedlarsPack in 1869: "Those who are familiar with the Irish song ... entitled "The Boys of Kilkenny," which was written about forty years ago, ... will recognize several of the stanzas ...."
Bodleian broadside Harding B 22(381), which Bodleian does not date, would seem by its font (non-final long "s," some arbitrary capitals but no italics), to be about as old as the 1795 chapbook cited by Logan [c.1770?-c.1830?]. A reference to King George is not much help in refining the date. The name of the town -- or in this case, section of London -- is omitted: "And when they come in Company with their pritty Maids, O they hugg them and kiss them, and spend their Money free And of all parts of London --- for me." It shares its first verse with "The Wandring Maiden" or "True Love at Length United" (See Joseph Woodfall Ebsworth, editor, The Bagford Ballads: Illustrating the Last Years of the Stuarts (Hertford, 1878 ("Digitized by Google")), Second Division, pp. 572-575, "The Wandring Maiden" or "True Love at Length United"). - BS
Last updated in version 2.6
File: Gre0032

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