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The Jolly Butchers Three

Date January 1952
Track ID 15725
Part 1

Track Information

Original Track ID

SA1952.05.A4

Original Tape ID

SA1952.005

Summary

Three butchers, Johnston, Gibson and Wilson, go travelling with £500 to pay their way. Johnston hears a woman cry and they find a naked woman; he wraps her in his plaid and puts her on his horse. Suddenly the wicked woman starts to cry and ten robbers appear, challenging the butchers. Wilson and Gibson want to flee but Johnston chooses to fight. He shoots six of them and draws his broadsword. The woman jumps from the horse and stabs him in the back. He tells her she is wicked and has killed England's best fighter, a widow's only son. She is sentenced to death and will die on the spot where she killed Johnston.

The contributor learned this song from John Thain.

Item Notes

Text and music transcribed in the School of Scottish Studies. Nine verses.

John Thain was second horseman at Wester Clova, Kildrummy, in 1909.

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 2, pp. 3-11
Willie Mathieson's MSS II:44
'English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians' (Cecil Sharp) vol. I, p. 370, and note on p. 424

Language

English

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R17 GD186 LL4

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good