{"id":9384,"date":"2021-02-24T11:45:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-24T11:45:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=9384"},"modified":"2021-02-24T11:46:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-24T11:46:17","slug":"love-in-a-hayband","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/love-in-a-hayband\/","title":{"rendered":"Love in a hayband"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Richard Short\u2019s history
Dicky Short
Dicky Short’s History<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td>1818<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Writer\/composer<\/td>Thomas Hudson \/ unknown<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN22802<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Mr Emery?<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Collected from the singing of:<\/strong>
Willett, Samuel; England : Sussex; 1891
Modern performances<\/strong>
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From Thomas Hudson's 1st Collection of Comic Songs (1818)<\/strong> \n\nLOVE IN A HAYBAND.\nSUNG BY THE LATE MR. EMERY.\nTune.-\u201c Legacy.\"\n\nDid  you ever hear one Richard Short's history?\nIf you didn't I'll tell it you now;\nAll over our parts it was thought quite a mystery,\nHe was a young man that follow'd the plough.\nBut he got tired of that kind of life did,\nWas hired as hostler at sign of the Crown,\nFell in love with the maid, want her for a wife did,\n'Twas very well known to all folk in our town!\n\nThis lass Nelly Long, she was dressish and dapper,\nAnd tho'f our Dick was a good looking lad;\nShe snubb'd him and scoff'd him, for she was a snapper,\nAnd told him quite plump that she warn\u2019t to be had,\nFor she lov\u2019d a man much more handsome and bigger,\nAnd he came fra\u2019 Lunnon, and wasn't a clown;\nHis name it was Sly, and he was a grave digger,\nAnd very well known to all th' folk in our town !\n\nAs Nelly right flat-like his wife did refuse to be,\nRichard he lost all his comfort and hope;\nAnd said, As he didn't feel like what he used to be,\nHe'd hang himself if he could find him a rope.\nHe hunted about, while with love he did falter,\nBut the devil a rope could he find up nor down;\nSo he twisted a hay band, and made him a halter,\n'Twas very well known to all th\u2019 folks in our town.\n\nHe hung himself up to a tree in a meadow,\nHe felt all over he didn't know how;\nHis neck was a stretching, but's feet couldn't tread O!\nWhen up came by chance Farmer Giles's old cow ;\nShe smelt at the hay, and caught hold of the band fast,\nPluck'd out a mouthful, which brought Dicky down;\nHe jump'd on his legs, and away then he ran fast,\nAnd was never more seen by th' folks in our town.\n\nNow mark what a judgment came on that lass Nelly,\nFor being so hard-hearted to that poor lad;\nShe by the grave-digger got stout about belly,\nAnd he run away, leaving her all so sad.\nShe (when too late) found that she was betray'd, and\nRelations they all turn'd their backs with a frown!\nShe laid in, and her boy it was mark'd with a hayband,\n'Twas very well known to all th' folks in our town.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
A song written by Thomas Hudson (1791- 1844)<\/a> a song-writer and performer active in the singing taverns and supper rooms that influenced the early Music Hall in London. This song was written for performance by Mr Emery, a prominent theatre actor \u2013 so strictly speaking not a Music Hall song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 June 4, 1818,  <\/strong>Morning Post (London, England)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Like many of Hudson\u2019s songs this one survives in multiple 19th century broadsheets and songbooks,  usually appearing  under the title Love in a hayband<\/em>, but sometimes under one or other of the alternative titles above. (A hayband is a rope made of straw)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several of Hudson’s songs were remembered by traditional singers whose songs were picked up by folk song collectors in the late 19th and early 20th century. This one was collected by Lucy Broadwood from the singing of Samuel Willett in 1891. It also appears in one of the notebooks of Sabine Baring Gould, made in the 1880s\/90s – William Knapman had sent him a song called Dicky Short’s Sad Story<\/em>– Gould’s notes make it clear he recognised it as a Hudson song:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Sent me by Wm Knapman, Auctioneer, South Zeal. He wrote \u201cthe event happened at Sth. Zeal many years ago.\u201d
Same on a broadside by Beezley, Exeter.
Song by Hudson to air \u201cThe Legacy\u201d. Universal Songster\u201d I. p. 43 \u201cLove in a Hayband.\u201d<\/p>From notebook of Sabine Baring Gould<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The tune The Legacy <\/em> may refer to a Strathspey, described here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n