Creeping Jane [Laws Q23]

DESCRIPTION: Racehorse Creeping Jane is not well known, but wins a race despite a slow start -- and is still fresh, though the course exhausted the other animals. After Jane dies, plans are made to keep her body from the hounds
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1855 (broadside, Bodleian Firth c.19(76))
KEYWORDS: horse racing burial
FOUND IN: US(MW) Britain(England(Lond,North,South))
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Laws Q23, "Creeping Jane"
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "CREEPING JANE"
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 439, "Creeping Jane" (1 text)
OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 4, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 23, "Creeping Jane" (1 text)
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 89, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 114, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #112, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #105, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
Gardner/Chickering-BalladsAndSongsOfSouthernMichigan 99, "Creeping Jane" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT 532, CREEPJAN*
Roud #1012
RECORDINGS:
Joseph Taylor, "Creeping Jane" (on Voice08)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Firth c.19(76)[first line illegible], "Creeping Jane" ("I'll sing you a song, and a very pretty one"), E.M.A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Firth c.19(73), Firth c.19(75), Harding B 11(174), "Creeping Jane"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bill Hopkin's Colt" (theme)
cf. "Down the Road" (II) (theme)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Jockey's Song
File: LQ23

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography