For I am a Maid that's Deep in Love: this is something of a find too, though of humbler order. The Maid on the Shore is such a familiar song in north-east America that it is a wonder that its traces are so rare in the land of its birth. To the best of my knowledge, the only vestige of the song recovered on this side of the Atlantic is the single stanza entitled The Mermaid in Joyce's Old Irish Folk Music (and even there, the story of the song seems to be different from the American versions). The various Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and Maine versions seem to be very much alike, and may relate to a broadsheet print. This present version is very fragmentary, of course, and is quite lacking in the central theme of the story (The Broomfield Hill theme, one might call it) of the girl outwitting the amorous captain. But it does contain what the north-eastern American versions usually miss, which is the motive of search for a lost lover. A Missouri version of the song begins: "There was a fair damsel all crossed in love, And deeply sunk in despair, O".

Mrs Costello;s melody is more familiar as one of the Lowlands of Holland sets - A. L. L.