DERBYSHIRE***


E-text prepared by Judith Wirawan, Jonathan Ingram, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)



Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
      file which includes the original illustrations and
      links to sound clips to demonstrate the music.
      See 42585-h.htm or 42585-h.zip:
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42585/42585-h/42585-h.htm)
      or
      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/42585/42585-h.zip)


Transcriber's note:

      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).

      A carat character is used to denote superscription. A
      single character following the carat is superscripted
      (example: A^o). Multiple superscripted characters are
      enclosed by curly brackets (example: Mat^{ies}).

      A plus sign is used to represent a dagger signifying a
      footnore.

      Small capitals are presented as all capitals in this
      e-text.





[Illustration: _Singing Sam of Derbyshire_]


THE BALLADS & SONGS OF DERBYSHIRE.

With Illustrative Notes, and Examples of the Original Music, etc.

Edited by

LLEWELLYNN JEWITT, F.S.A., &c., &c.







[Illustration: Logo]

London: Bemrose and Lothian, 21, Paternoster Row.
Derby: Bemrose and Sons, Irongate.
MDCCCLXVII.




                            TO
         HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, K.G.,
           LORD-LIEUTENANT AND CUSTOS-ROTULORUM
                      OF THE COUNTY
   WHOSE BALLADS ARE HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME COLLECTED,
                     THIS VOLUME IS,
              AS A MARK OF PERSONAL ESTEEM,
  AND AS A TRIBUTE TO THE TRUE NOBILITY OF HIS CHARACTER
                          AND TO
            HIS HIGH INTELLECTUAL ATTAINMENTS,
               MOST GRATEFULLY DEDICATED BY

                                      The Editor.




INTRODUCTION.


It is certainly somewhat curious that, in a county so confessedly rich
in ballads and in popular songs as Derbyshire is, no attempt should
hitherto have been made to collect together and give to the world even
a small selection of these valuable and interesting remains. Such,
however, is the fact, and the ballads, the traditions, and the lyrics
of the county have remained to the present day uncollected, and, it is
to be feared, uncared for, by those to whom the task of collection in
days gone by would have been tolerably easy. It has therefore remained
for me, with my present volume, to initiate a series of works which
shall embrace these and kindred subjects, and vindicate for Derbyshire
its place in the literary history of the kingdom.

In my present volume I have given a selection of upwards of fifty
ballads and songs, many of them extremely curious, and all highly
interesting, which are purely Derbyshire, and relate entirely to that
county, to events which have happened within its bounds, or to
Derbyshire families. These I have collected together from every
available source, and several amongst them have never before been
reprinted from the old broad-sheets and garlands in which they are
contained; while others, taken down from the lips of "old
inhabitants," or from the original MSS., are for the first-time put
into type. Knowing that in ballads it is next to, if not quite,
impossible to accomplish a successful chronological arrangement, and
feeling that, if accomplished, such an arrangement is open to grave
objections, I have purposely avoided the attempt, and have contented
myself with varying, as much as possible, the contents of my volume,
and with giving to each ballad an introductory notice touching on the
event commemorated, on the writer of the piece, or on the source from
whence the ballad has been obtained. Having done this, the necessity
for a long introduction here is obviated, and it only remains for me
to announce my intention of following up my present volume with
another similar one, as a "Second Series" of Derbyshire Ballads and
Songs, and with others on the Poets and Poetry of Derbyshire; on the
Political and Criminal songs of the county; and on its Folk-Lore and
Traditions, etc. It is hoped that the present volume will find
sufficient favour with the public to act as an encouragement to the
early issue of the succeeding volumes, which will contain a vast
amount of interesting