Lowlands of Holland, The

DESCRIPTION: A young couple are parted (when the young man is taken away to sea). While in service, he is drowned. The girl vows she will not dress in fine clothes nor seek another man until the day she dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1760
KEYWORDS: recruiting death parting pressgang separation ship marines
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,Lond,West),Scotland(Aber)) US(Ap,NE,So) Canada(Newf) Ireland Australia
REFERENCES (41 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "LOWLANDS OF HOLLAND, THE"
Bronson (92), "The Lowlands of Holland" (22 versions)
Bronson-SingingTraditionOfChildsPopularBallads (92), "The Lowlands of Hollands" (5 versions: #1, #6, #7, #110, #16)
Whitelaw-BookOfScottishSong, p. 107, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Ford-VagabondSongsAndBalladsOfScotland, pp. 55-57, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #9}
Bush-FSofCentralWestVirginiaVol2, pp. 88-89, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Sharp-EnglishFolkSongsFromSouthernAppalachians 26, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 fragment, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Karpeles-TheCrystalSpring 7, "The Low Lands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Brronson's #8}
Greig-FolkSongInBuchan-FolkSongOfTheNorthEast #83, pp. 1-2, "The Rocks of Giberaltar"; #135, p. 2, "The Lowlands o' Holland" (2 texts plus 1 fragment)
Greig/Duncan6 1116, "The Lowlands of Holland," Greig/Duncan6 1118, "The Rocks of Gibraltar," Greig/Duncan8 Addenda, "The Lowlands of Holland" (6 texts plus a single verse on p. 546, 2 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 23, "The Low, Low Lands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Reeves/Sharp-TheIdiomOfThePeople 60, "The Lowlands of Holland" (3 texts)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 85, "The Lowlands of Holland" (3 texts)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Wt 456, "Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Palmer-FolkSongsCollectedBy-Ralph-VaughanWilliams, #38, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Purslow-MarrowBones, p. 54, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Baring-Gould/Sheppard-SongsOfTheWest2ndEd, #103, "I'll Build Myself a Gallant Ship" (1 text, 1 tune, probably this although there isn't much plot left in it)
Randolph 83, "The Lily of Arkansas" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Randolph/Cohen-OzarkFolksongs-Abridged, pp. 72-74, "The Lily of Arkansas" (1 text, 1 tune -- Randolph's 83A)
Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1, pp. 101-102, "The Jolly Sailor" (1 text, 1 tune)
Shay-AmericanSeaSongsAndChanteys, pp. 45-46, "The Lawlands o' Holland" (1 text)
Gray-SongsAndBalladsOfTheMaineLumberjacks, pp. 88-89, "The Lowlands Low" (1 text, slightly damaged)
Flanders/Olney-BalladsMigrantInNewEngland, pp. 113-114, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 133-139, "(How Dan Golden Made Up a New Song)" (1 text of "John Ross" plus many quotes from "Lowlands of Holland" versions that Eckstorm and Smyth consider Golden's inspiration)
Lane/Gosbee-SongsOfShipsAndSailors, p.p. 53-54, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune, composite)
Meredith/Anderson-FolkSongsOfAustralia, p. 179, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Logan-APedlarsPack, pp. 22-25, "The Lowlands of Holland" (2 texts)
Quiller-Couch-OxfordBookOfBallads 160, "The Lowlands o' Holland" (1 text)
Combs/Wilgus-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernUnitedStates 132, p. 150, "The Soldier Bride's Lament" (1 text)
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H180, pp. 149-150, "Holland Is a Fine Place" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hayward-UlsterSongsAndBalladsOfTheTownAndCountry, pp. 54-55, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text)
Ord-BothySongsAndBallads, pp. 328-332, "The Lowlands of Holland (Scottish Version)"; "The Lowlands of Holland (English Version)"; "The Rocks of Gibraltar" (3 texts)
MacColl/Seeger-TravellersSongsFromEnglandAndScotland 12, "Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
OLochlainn-MoreIrishStreetBallads 7A, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Morton/Maguire-ComeDayGoDayGodSendSunday 48, pp. 140-141,174, "The Rocks of Giberaltar" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ashton-RealSailorSongs, #59, "The Maid's Lamentation for the Loss of her True Love" (1 text)
Stone-SeaSongsAndBallads LXXIII, pp. 141-142, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text); LXXXVIII, pp. 177-178, "The Maid's Lamentation for the Loss of her True Love" (1 text)
DT (92), LOWHOLLD* LOWHOLL2* LOWHOLL3* LOWHOLL4 LOWHOLL5 LOWHOLL6 LOWHOLL7* LOWHOLL8
ADDITIONAL: James Johnson, Editor, _The Scots Musical Museum_ [1853 edition], volume II, #115, p. 118, "The Lowlands of Holland" (1 text, 1 tune)
Fred W. Allsopp, Folklore of Romantic Arkansas, Volume II (1931), p. 213, "(The Lily of Arkansas)" (1 fragment)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #377, "The Lawlands o' Holland" (1 text)
ST R083 (Full)
Roud #484
RECORDINGS:
Anita Best and Pamela Morgan, "The Lowlands of Holland" (on NFABestPMorgan01)
Michael Murphy, "Lowlands of Holland" (on MUNFLA/Leach)
Paddy Tunney, "The Lowlands of Holland" (on IRPTunney01) (on Voice02)
Guy Wolff, "Lowlands of Holland" (Piotr-Archive #433, recorded 01/08/2023)
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(2258), "Lowlands of Holland" ("The night that I was married"), J. Pitts (London), 1819-1844; also Firth c.12(216), Firth c.26(201), "Lowlands of Holland"
NLScotland, L.C.Fol.70(68b), "The Rocks of Bonnie Gibraltar ," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890; also RB.m.143(121) "The Lowlands of Holland," Poet's Box (Dundee), c.1890
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Bonny Bee Hom" [Child 92] (given as an appendix to that ballad)
cf. "All Things Are Quite Silent" (theme)
cf. "The British Man-of-War" (tune)
cf. "Our Ship She Is Lying in Harbour" (lyrics)
cf. "Bonny Portmore" ("shines where it stands") and references there
ALTERNATE TITLES:
The Lily of Arkansas
NOTES [332 words]: "The Lowlands of Holland" is frequently connected to "Bonny Bee Hom" (Child 92), a link dating back to Child (who printed four stanzas of Herd's text). The matter has been much studied, without clear conclusion. The tendency has been to assume that "Bonny Bee Hom" is the older, just because it is the Child Ballad, but the fact that "Lowlands of Holland" is so much more common may be a counter-argument. David C. Fowler, A Literary History of the Popular Ballad, Duke University Press, 1968, p. 323, suggests that "Bonny Bee Hom" is Anna Gordon Brown's rewrite of "Lowlands." It might be noted, however, that "Bonny Bee Hom" involves a magic device (the stone that tells the lover whether his sweetheart is true), a theme not found in "The Lowlands of Holland."
It will also be obvious that "The Lowlands of Holland" has been enduringly popular, whereas "Bonny Bee Hom" has had very little currency in tradition.
Roud assigns Burton/Manning-EastTennesseeStateCollectionVol1's "The Jolly Sailor" text its own number, #7131, but the Burton/Manning song shares many words with this song; it just omits the reference to the Lowlands of Holland. I have no hesitation about lumping them. - RBW
Roud assigns #2174 to "The Rocks of Gibraltar." Aside from the location being changed from "The Lowlands of Holland" there's hardly anything to distinguish between the two songs.
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 85A includes a "shines as it stands" verse: "Holland is a pleasant place which shines as it stands And there's good accomodations for sailors in that land, Where sugar there in canes do grow, the tea falls from the tree. I wish to God my love was nigh, although she's far away." The more usual verse is something like "Holland is a pretty place, And in it grows no green, Nor is there any habitation, For any young man to be seen, The sugar cane is plentiful, And the tea grows on the trees, And the low lands of Holland, Betwixt you my love and me" (Broadside Bodleian Harding B 11(2258)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.8
File: R083

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