Nutting Girl, The

DESCRIPTION: A young girl goes out to gather nuts. A farmer stops plowing and begins to sing. The girl hears his sweet voice, and "what nuts she had got, poor girl, she threw them all away." They lie together, then go their ways. The song warns girls against dallying
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1895; tune 1792 (Bunting)
KEYWORDS: courting seduction music harvest farming sex pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(Lond,South,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (13 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "NUTTING GIRL, THE"
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 186, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Greig/Duncan7 1475, "A-Nutting I'll Not Go" (4 texts, 3 tunes)
Copper-SongsAndSouthernBreezes, pp. 214-215, "The Nutting Maid" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hamer-GreenGroves, pp. 12-13, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 652, "Nutting Girl" (1 text)
Palmer-EnglishCountrySongbook, #72, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 15, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-TheConstantLovers, p. 1, "A-Nutting We Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #83, "A Nutting We Will Go" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #84, "The Nutting Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 108-109, "The Jolly Plough Boy" (1 text, 1 tune, in which the plough boy and the squire's daughter end up getting married; I suspect two songs have joined)
DT, NUTGIRL*
Roud #509
RECORDINGS:
Warde Ford, "A Nutting We Will Go" [incomplete] (AFS 4200 A2, 1938; in AMMEM/Cowell)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Harlaw" (tune, per Greig/Duncan7)
cf. "Mowing Match Song" (partial tune, according to Palmer)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Lie Owre
Young Jackie
NOTES [18 words]: The recording lists "Our Goodman" as an alternate title for Ford's recording, but "Our Goodman" it ain't. - PJS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: K186

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