Rambleaway

DESCRIPTION: Young man meets young woman. He says he's known as "Rambleaway" (after his wandering habit). In some versions the last verse cautions girls about men like him; in others the woman slips away, and he rambles around searching for her in vain.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: before 1845 (broadside, Bodleian Harding B 11(3575))
KEYWORDS: courting rambling warning pregnancy
FOUND IN: Britain(England(South,North),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE)
REFERENCES (11 citations):
Gardham-EarliestVersions, "YOUNG RAMBLE-AWAY"
Greig/Duncan7 1485, "Ramble Away" (2 texts, 1 tune)
Sharp-OneHundredEnglishFolksongs 31, "Sweet Kitty" ; 75, "Brimbledon Fair, or, Young Ramble-Away" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
Kennedy-FolksongsOfBritainAndIreland 166, "Ramble-away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Williams-Wiltshire-WSRO Mi 683, "Rambleaway" (1 text)
Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 32, "Derry Down Fair" (2 texts)
Kidson-TraditionalTunes, pp. 150-151, "Brocklesby Fair" (1 fragment, 1 tune)
Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #89, "Young Ramble Away" (1 text, 1 tune)
Beck-FolkloreOfMaine, pp. 184-186, "Ramble Away" (1 text, 1 tune, with an odd opening set in "Verdun")
DT, RAMBLAWA
ADDITIONAL: Roy Palmer, "'Birmingham Broadsides and Oral Tradition" -- essay found in David Atkinson and Steve Roud, Editors, _Street Ballads in Nineteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and North America: The Interface between Print and Oral Tradition_, Ashgate, 2014, pp. 48-49, "Young Ramble-away" (1 text)
Roud #171
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(3575), "Young Ramble Away" ("As I was a walking down Birmingham street"), J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Firth b.34(247), Firth c.18(245), Harding B 11(4385), Harding B 25(2144)[some words illegible], Firth c.18(289), Harding B 15(149b)[torn; some lines missing], "Young Ramble Away"; Harding B 13(20), Harding B 13(19), "Young Ramble-away"
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Come All You Fair and Tender Girls" (theme)
cf. "When I Was Young (Don't Never Trust a Sailor)" (plot)
cf. "Yon Green Valley" (plot)
cf. "The Courting Coat" (plot, lyrics)
cf. "The Roving Shantyboy" (plot)
ALTERNATE TITLES:
Derry Down Fair
Brimbledown Fair
Burlington Fair
Brocklesby Fair
File: ShH31

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