She’d a black and rolling eye (railway version)

From Mackney's Organ Grinder Songster (1865)

She'd a Black And a Rolling Eye.

Music and words published and sold by L'Enfant and Hodgkins, 18 Rathbone Place, Oxford Street, London


Kind friends, just listen for a while, a few words to you I'll say,
Of what happened to me when travelling by rail t'other day;
I got into a carriage with a lady dress'd so slap,
She was nursing of an infant that was crying out for pap.

Spoken - Yes, she was a charming creature, for she had such –

A black and rolling eye, 
She wore a new poke bonnet,
A nice little young thing, 
And just the one to woo.

I said, "What a handsome baby," and the lady only smil'd;
I said, 'twould make a man feel proud to be the father of such a child.
I said, are you it's ma-ma?
She said, can't you the likeness see?
And as she spoke she gave a look and roll'd her eye at me.

Spoken -  Yes, I never shall forget that look; you can imagine a loving look from such an angel with –

When we got near a station the lady said to me,
Would you have any objection to take this baby on your knee
I have to get out at this station just to speak a word to a friend,
I said I would, with pleasure, and down the stairs she did descend.

Spoken - And as she did, she gave me another loving look with –

In less than half a minute, the train was off again,
I looked and called for the lady, but call I did in vain,
We got to another station, when to the porter I did shout,
I say, be quick and open the door, and let me at the baby out.

Spoken -  And the first thing I did was to look about the carriages, but no mother for the baby could I find, so the guard said, you had better go to the stationmaster and inform him of the circumstance; I did, and the stationmaster said, just give me the description of the lady,so I told him –

A mob soon came round me to hear what I had to say,
Some said it was a cruel thing for the mother to run away,
Some said it was only done for a lark, others 'twas a mistake,
And another one suggested I should buy the child some cake.

Spoken - Now, in my opinion, I had cake enough already, and hardbake as well, when one of the crowd said, what sort of lady was she? so I told him –

So now I've told you all my case I hope you'll bear in mind
The description of this lady and help me try to find
The mother of the infant, and gents a warning take by me,
And never let mothers out of sight when their baby is on your knee.

[Spoken] - Yes, gentlemen, don't be too obliging in railway trains. Altho' it's very nice to be a guardian for a short time, especially when a pretty girl solicits your protection, but be careful you're made a Foundling as I was by –

The idea that a woman with a black and rolling eye might be particularly attractive goes back at least to the early 18th century. It features in an anonymous fragment of verse from 1750 (the spelling has been modernised):

Pretty Miss,
Come and kiss
With your black and rolling eye.
O that lip
Let me sip
Or with anguish I shall die

The Merry Companion (1750)

The phrase appears in several folksongs, including the song most often known as Seventeen Come Sunday (RN277) – Steve Gardham suggests that the earliest version of that song we can find dates to 1795 (Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A3561). Several songs have at times been referred to as She had a black and rolling eye, or something very similar:

• A Music Hall song from the 1860s telling story of a meeting on a train (discussed on this page)
• A well-known song in the folk music tradition more often called The Fireship in which a sailor meets a young woman. I have written some notes on the latter here: She had a black and rolling eye (sailor version).
• A Music Hall song published in 1895, She’d a dark and rolling eye written by Will Godwin and Steve Leggett, performed by JH Hurst (First line: The other day in Regent Street)

The widespread use of the phrase means that when historical sources describe someone singing a song under this title, it’s often not clear which song they are singing!

However, there is ample evidence that George Ware, a prolific songwriter in the early stages of his career, wrote a song called She had a black and rolling eye and that it was performed in the Halls by EW Mackney. In the early 1860s Ware was particularly exercised about people stealing his songs, and he put this notice in The Era newspaper: