| AKA | He stood in a beautiful mansion |
| First Published | 1905 |
| Writer/composer | Chas. Ridgewell and Will Godwin | Roud | RN5307 |
| Music Hall Performers | Will Godwin |
| Folk performances | Collected from the singing of: Keeping Family; England : London 1930s – 1950s Walton, Grace; England : Yorkshire : 1970 Belton, George; England : Sussex : 1971 Hart, Bob England : Suffolk : 1975-78 Messenger, Alice; England : Suffolk : 1975-80 Hammond, Bessie; England : Suffolk : 1975-80 Webb, Percy; England : Suffolk : 1975-76 Goodchild, James; England : Hampshire : 1976 Lavallee, Joe; Canada : Quebec : 1978 Ryder, Mr. E.C. England : Hampshire : 1982 Syrett, Gordon; England : Suffolk : 1982 Ryder, E.C. (Charlie) & Mrs. England : Hampshire : 1983 Modern performances Foster and Allan, Hugo Duncan, Shawn Cuddy, Chas and Dave, John Forman, many others.. |
He stood in a beautiful Mansion Surrounded by riches untold He gazed at a beautiful picture That hung in a frame of gold ‘Twas a picture of a lady So beautiful young and fair To the beautiful life-like features He murmured in sad despair. If those lips could only speak If those eyes could only see If those beautiful golden tresses Were there in reality Could I only take your hand As I did when you took my name But it’s only a beautiful picture In a beautiful golden frame. With all his great power and riches He knows he can never replace One thing in that mansion that’s absent His Wife’s tender smiling face And each time he sees her picture These same words he’ll always say "All my wealth I would freely forfeit And toil for you night and day". He sat there and gazed at the painting Then slumbered forgetting all pain And there, in that mansion in fancy She stood by his side again Then his lips they softly murmured The name of his once sweet bride With his eyes fixed upon the picture He awoke from his dream and cried,
A popular sentimental ballad originally co-written and performed in the Halls by Will Godwin. It has remained popular for over 100 years, a standard song for certain type of sentimental crooner. It was played on the Titanic in the hours before the ship went down and has been recorded by jazz, country, blue grass and commercial Irish ballad singers.
One early 20th century form of marketing was the use of song postcards like the ones shown below. The artwork on the postcards was also used to produce magic lantern slides which could be hired or bought, presumably the slides were used at public singing events. This combination of song postcards and magic lantern slides seem to peak between 1910 and 1920.
As regards traditional singing, according to John Howson:
[the] song became popular with several Suffolk singers, particularly in the Blaxhall area where Ginette Dunn (in her book ‘A Fellowship of Song’) mentions Alice Messenger, Bessie Hammond, Percy Webb and Bob Hart as all singing it.
Sleevenotes Veteran CD Many a good horseman
Its popularity was not limited to Suffolk and it has been found in the repertoire of traditional singers throughout the English speaking world, especially in England and Ireland.
The wonderful John Foreman sings it:
A commercial Irish Ballad singer sings it (there are loads of other versions!):
Sources:
- 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%3A5307
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: monologues.co.uk
- Sheet Music: Francis and Day’s Album of Old Time Favourites No 1, p28
- Bamforth Postcards from Huddersfield Exposed see also the Magic Lantern slides at Lucerna
Last Updated on April 22, 2023 by John Baxter | Published: April 22, 2023
