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"The Bailiff's Daughter" was one of my mother's favourite songs which she sang for her own pleasure as a young mother. Her version which can be found in A Mum's (Mostly Musical) Memories has five verses is quite in variance with T. Percy's "Reliques of English Poetry" (1765) with its full-blown 13 verses given in Andrew Gant's Folk Songs of the British Isles
The song is a simple tale of a young girl refusing her lover's advances. The thwarted lover departs for far regions and returns some seven years later to claim his bride (not before a few minor hurdles by the way!). What verse can express joy so much as the final verse in the Percy version to whit:
"Oh farewell grief, and welcome joy,
ten thousand times therefore;
for I have found mine own true love,
whom I thought I should never see more."
"The Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" has been recorded by:
Various Artists on "Hearts of Oak: Songs of the British Isles" CD(s) & MP3 Album(s)