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Source: Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Dec 1951
Notes:
Collected from Lloyd A Sanford, East Walton by Doreen H Senior and Helen Creighton.
The notes in the Journal are given here:
The singer could only remember the last two lines of one verse:
And wondered how so fair a flower
Could bloom and flourish there
The story is of a man who murdered a girl of whom he wished to rid himself. From her grave grew a magic flower which bloomed continually, a new flower growing immediately one had been plucked. But when the murderer plucked a blossom it turned to blood in his hands, and so his guilt was discovered. It was extraordinary that Mr Sanford recollected the tune perfectly and was able to sing it to me without the words. - D.H.S.
Keep this for the Journal, words might be found later. - F.K.
A hexatonic tune, very Irish, like others in this collection. - A.M.F.
The middle section is very reminiscent of 'Granuaile' though the rhythm is different. - P.N.S-S.
Words should surely be discoverable, as the story is of a stock type, and of a kind which often found literary preservation from the Middle Ages onwards. Cp. the story, made famous by Boccaccio and Keats, of Isabella and the Pot of Basil of which the Journal contains many versions, either prototype or deriviative. - Ed.
KEY TO NAMES
| D.H.S. | Doreen H Senior |
| F.K. | Frederick Keel |
| A.M.F. | A. Martin Freeman |
| P.N.S-S. | P. N. Shuldham-Shaw |
| Ed. | Miss M. J. Dean-Smith. |
Roud: 3345 (Search Roud index at VWML)
Laws:
Child:
Related Songs: Bruton Town (thematic)