Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Sir Henry / Lord Henry / Love Henry / Loving Henry Lee / Lady Margaret / Young Hunting (Child No. 68) - Sung by Mrs. Orilla "Orella" Mildred Madison Keyton (1880–1953) of Mount Fair, Albemarle County, Virginia, USA. Recorded by Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. on March 10, 1933. Previously collected by Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles from Mrs. Keeton (s.p) on September 26, 1916. This version was covered by Hedy West on the LP "Ballads" (1967) Topic Records - 12T163.
00:00:00 Lady Margaret (1st Take) - Orilla Keyton
00:05:00 Lady Margaret (2nd Take) - Orilla Keyton
00:09:21 Love Henry - Mary Bird McAllister
00:14:10 You Murdered Your Love In The Hall - Hannah Gatts Rogers
A selection of 1930s phonograph recordings made by folklorist Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. (1897–1972) of Virginia ballad singers has been digitised and made available for listening online: https://avalon.lib.virginia.edu/collections/7m01bk901
We get a chance to listen to some of the very same people Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles met and noted songs from in the 1910s.
The audio quality of these recordings is relatively poor, being made with portable equipment at that time, but the songs are interesting and worthy of attention. I had the idea of creating small compilations of related versions of each song for these videos. This is because I noticed that I often had more than one recording of each song available from singers who were related or lived in the same area.
Arthur K. Davis Jr. published the hundreds of Virginia ballads he collected in two books, "Folk-Songs of Virginia" (1949), and "More Traditional Ballads of Virginia" (1960) with the editorial assistance of Paul Clayton Worthington.
Note by Kevin W.:
A beautiful, carefully preserved text with a fine tune. This stands as one of the best versions of Young Hunting (Child 68) recorded in modern times. It has the rare bugle horn opening and the bribery of the maid servant.
The later half of Young Hunting with the king's divers being instructed to search for the body by the talking bird has only once been recorded in America in a fragment titled "Sir Robin", distinct from all other US texts: bluegrassmessengers.com/sir-robin--swetnam-ms-1936-hudson-a.aspx
I wonder if the shorter US texts aren't closer to a speculative ur-form of the ballad, with the supernatural elements having been grafted onto the song by literary Scottish poets at a later date. If these elements were part of the ur-ballad wouldn't they show up in at least some of the US texts? It's likely the song arrived in Virginia with the early settlers in the 1600s-1700s and predates the Scottish texts printed by Prof. Child.
The scant surviving tradition of the ballad in Ireland and Canada agrees with the US texts.
Song transcription:
As Lady Margret she was going to bed
She heard the sound of a musical horn,
Which made her heart feel glad and sad
To think that it was her brother, brother John
Returning from his king,
But who should it be but her true-love Henery
Coming in from his wild hunting.
"O light, O light, love Henery,
To stay all night with me,
And you shall have the cheers of the cheery cold girl, [*]
The best I can give thee."
"I will not light nor I shall not light
To stay all night with thee,
For there's a pretty girl in Merry Green Lea
I love far better than thee."
He bended over her soft pillow
To give her a kiss so sweet,
But with a penknife in her right hand
She wounded him in full deep.
"Woe be, woe be, Lady Margret," he cried,
"Woe be, woe be to thee,
For don't you see my own heart's blood
Come twinkling down my knee?"
She called unto a maid of hers:
Keep a secret, keep a secret on me.
All these fine robes on my body
Shall always be to thee.
One taken him by his long yellow hair
And the other one by his feet,
And they threw him into the well waters
Which was so cold and deep.
Lie there, lie there, love Henery,
Till the flesh rots off your bones,
And that pretty girl in Merry Green Lea
Thinks long of your coming home.
Up spoke, up spoke a pretty little parrot
Exceeding on a willow tree:
There never was a girl in Merry Green Lea
He loved so well as thee.
Come down, come down, my pretty little parrot,
And sit upon my knee,
And you shall have a cage of a pure, pure gold
Instead of the willow tree.
[ I won't come down, nor I shan't come down
To sit upon your knee,
For you have murdered your true love Henery,
More sooner you would kill me. ] [**]
If I had my arrow in my hand,
My bow on tuneful string,
I'd shoot a dart that would win your heart,
So you could no longer sing.
If you had your arrow in your hand,
Your bow on tuneful string,
I'd take a flight and fly, fly away
And tune my voice to sing.
[*] In Scottish texts this line runs more properly "you shall have cheer with charcoal clear"
[**] This stanza was noted by Cecil Sharp in 1916 but wasn't sung in 1933
Sir Henry / Lord Henry / Love Henry / Loving Henry Lee / Lady Margaret / Young Hunting (Child No. 68) - Sung by Mrs. Orilla "Orella" Mildred Madison Keyton (1880–1953) of Mount Fair, Albemarle County, Virginia, USA. Recorded by Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. on March 10, 1933. Previously collected by Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles from Mrs. Keeton (s.p) on September 26, 1916. This version was covered by Hedy West on the LP "Ballads" (1967) Topic Records - 12T163.
00:00:00 Lady Margaret (1st Take) - Orilla Keyton
00:05:00 Lady Margaret (2nd Take) - Orilla Keyton
00:09:21 Love Henry - Mary Bird McAllister
00:14:10 You Murdered Your Love In The Hall - Hannah Gatts Rogers
A selection of 1930s phonograph recordings made by folklorist Arthur Kyle Davis Jr. (1897–1972) of Virginia ballad singers has been digitised and made available for listening online: https://avalon.lib.virginia.edu/collections/7m01bk901
We get a chance to listen to some of the very same people Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles met and noted songs from in the 1910s.
The audio quality of these recordings is relatively poor, being made with portable equipment at that time, but the songs are interesting and worthy of attention. I had the idea of creating small compilations of related versions of each song for these videos. This is because I noticed that I often had more than one recording of each song available from singers who were related or lived in the same area.
Arthur K. Davis Jr. published the hundreds of Virginia ballads he collected in two books, "Folk-Songs of Virginia" (1949), and "More Traditional Ballads of Virginia" (1960) with the editorial assistance of Paul Clayton Worthington.
Note by Kevin W.:
A beautiful, carefully preserved text with a fine tune. This stands as one of the best versions of Young Hunting (Child 68) recorded in modern times. It has the rare bugle horn opening and the bribery of the maid servant.
The later half of Young Hunting with the king's divers being instructed to search for the body by the talking bird has only once been recorded in America in a fragment titled "Sir Robin", distinct from all other US texts: bluegrassmessengers.com/sir-robin--swetnam-ms-1936-hudson-a.aspx
I wonder if the shorter US texts aren't closer to a speculative ur-form of the ballad, with the supernatural elements having been grafted onto the song by literary Scottish poets at a later date. If these elements were part of the ur-ballad wouldn't they show up in at least some of the US texts? It's likely the song arrived in Virginia with the early settlers in the 1600s-1700s and predates the Scottish texts printed by Prof. Child.
The scant surviving tradition of the ballad in Ireland and Canada agrees with the US texts.
Song transcription:
As Lady Margret she was going to bed
She heard the sound of a musical horn,
Which made her heart feel glad and sad
To think that it was her brother, brother John
Returning from his king,
But who should it be but her true-love Henery
Coming in from his wild hunting.
"O light, O light, love Henery,
To stay all night with me,
And you shall have the cheers of the cheery cold girl, [*]
The best I can give thee."
"I will not light nor I shall not light
To stay all night with thee,
For there's a pretty girl in Merry Green Lea
I love far better than thee."
He bended over her soft pillow
To give her a kiss so sweet,
But with a penknife in her right hand
She wounded him in full deep.
"Woe be, woe be, Lady Margret," he cried,
"Woe be, woe be to thee,
For don't you see my own heart's blood
Come twinkling down my knee?"
She called unto a maid of hers:
Keep a secret, keep a secret on me.
All these fine robes on my body
Shall always be to thee.
One taken him by his long yellow hair
And the other one by his feet,
And they threw him into the well waters
Which was so cold and deep.
Lie there, lie there, love Henery,
Till the flesh rots off your bones,
And that pretty girl in Merry Green Lea
Thinks long of your coming home.
Up spoke, up spoke a pretty little parrot
Exceeding on a willow tree:
There never was a girl in Merry Green Lea
He loved so well as thee.
Come down, come down, my pretty little parrot,
And sit upon my knee,
And you shall have a cage of a pure, pure gold
Instead of the willow tree.
[ I won't come down, nor I shan't come down
To sit upon your knee,
For you have murdered your true love Henery,
More sooner you would kill me. ] [**]
If I had my arrow in my hand,
My bow on tuneful string,
I'd shoot a dart that would win your heart,
So you could no longer sing.
If you had your arrow in your hand,
Your bow on tuneful string,
I'd take a flight and fly, fly away
And tune my voice to sing.
[*] In Scottish texts this line runs more properly "you shall have cheer with charcoal clear"
[**] This stanza was noted by Cecil Sharp in 1916 but wasn't sung in 1933
