Monymusk Lads, The

DESCRIPTION: "As I cam' in by Monymusk And doun by Alford's dale," the singer goes "to see my Maggie dear." He visits at night, but the auld wife detects him and sounds an alarm. The auld man forces him out; he vows to return when the old man snores
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1914 (Greig/Duncan3)
KEYWORDS: nightvisit courting age escape
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland(Aber))
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Greig/Duncan3 375, "Monymusk" (2 fragments, 1 tune)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 68-69, "Rural Courtship" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, MONYMUSK*
Roud #5568
RECORDINGS:
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, "The Monymusk Lads" (on SCMacCollSeeger01)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Auld Wife to the Bell-Rope Ran" (lyrics)
NOTES [77 words]: Greig/Duncan3: "The song was probably composed before 1876 when the farmer Robert Wilson died and left the farm to his daughter. The full song relates the attempts by a farm servant to court his sweetheart by entering her bedchamber at night."
Greig/Duncan3 has a map on p. xxxv, of "places mentioned in songs in volume 3" showing the song number as well as place name; Lethenty (375) is at coordinate (h3,v5-6) on that map [roughly 25 miles WNW of Aberdeen]. - BS
Last updated in version 2.5
File: Ord068

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