Penny Wager, The

DESCRIPTION: A traveller with one penny in his pocket stakes his purse in a pub wager. He wins; when he asks the landlord's wife what he owes, she tells him to give her a kiss and go. (He rejoices that he has won the wager; otherwise he'd have had to sell his horse)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3387))
KEYWORDS: wager travel gambling money landlord
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,West)) Australia
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "THE ADVENTURES OF A PENNY"
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 280, "The Penny Wager" (1 text, 1 tune)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 115, "The Penny Wager" (1 text, 1 tune)
Cologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. 4-5, "In the North Countrie" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-MarrowBones, p. 68, "The Penny Wager" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #26, "The Hearty Good Fellow" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #393
RECORDINGS:
George Dunn, "My Little Grey Horse" (on Voice13)
Levi Smith, "One Penny" (on Voice11)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3387), "Adventures of a Penny" ("Long time I've travelled the north country"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Harding B 16(2b), "The Adventures of a Penny"
ALTERNATE TITLES:
One Penny
Adventures of a Penny
File: McCST115

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