The Jolly Butchers Three
Track Information
Original Track ID
SA1952.05.A4
Original Tape ID
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
Genre
Collection
Source Type
Reel to reel
Audio Quality
Good