Uploaded November 2021 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
I'll Cut Off My Long Yellow Hair / My Brother Built Me a Bancy Bower / My Father Built Me a Shady Bower / Sweet William / The Small Birds Whistle / Dukes and Earls / The Border Widow's Lament / The Famous Flower of Serving Men (Child No. 106) - Sung by Mary Delaney, an Irish Traveller from County Tipperary. Recorded by Jim Carroll & Pat Mackenzie on May 27, 1977. From "From Puck to Appleby: Songs and stories from Jim Carroll's and Pat Mackenzie's recordings of Irish Travellers in England." (2003) Musical Traditions MTCD325-6.
Liner Notes:
In 1776, Bishop Percy of Dromore obtained a text of The Famous Flower of Serving Men from the Dean of Derry, whose mother remembered having seen it on a broadside. It does not seem to have turned up in Ireland since, apart from this confused fragment which Mary got from her father. However, Frank Purslow, in his note to the version included in the Hammond and Gardiner collection, found in Hampshire in 1908, writes of the song and its singer, Albert Doe:
‘Apparently a good singer with a very fine repertoire, some, if not all, of Irish origin. The tune of this, in any case, betrays its country of origin, as it is a variant, a good one, of a tune very much associated with texts of Irish origin, such as The Croppy Boy, The Isle of France, Sweet William, The Wild and Wicked Youth and several others’.
The earliest known text was on a broadside in the mid -17th century, which was said to have been written by one Laurence Price, but Child suggests that he had based this on an earlier popular romance. It has been found among English Travellers, one of the most complete versions being from Dorset gypsy, Caroline Hughes, in the 1960s.
Song transcription:
My brother built me for a bancy bower,
It was decked all over with pinks and flowers,
It was decked all over with the laurel green,
And such a bower that was never seen.
When Sweet William, he got the house alone,
He pulled out his bagpipes and played one tune,
Oh he changed his name oh, by note to note,
From Sweet William into Fair Ellen.
Now he went down to the looking glass,
And there he cut off his yellow locks,
When he changed his name into Fair Ellen.
They could not do him any greater harm
Than to kill the baby lie in his arms,
For to kill the baby lie in his arms,
And to change his name into Fair Ellen.
I'll Cut Off My Long Yellow Hair / My Brother Built Me a Bancy Bower / My Father Built Me a Shady Bower / Sweet William / The Small Birds Whistle / Dukes and Earls / The Border Widow's Lament / The Famous Flower of Serving Men (Child No. 106) - Sung by Mary Delaney, an Irish Traveller from County Tipperary. Recorded by Jim Carroll & Pat Mackenzie on May 27, 1977. From "From Puck to Appleby: Songs and stories from Jim Carroll's and Pat Mackenzie's recordings of Irish Travellers in England." (2003) Musical Traditions MTCD325-6.
Liner Notes:
In 1776, Bishop Percy of Dromore obtained a text of The Famous Flower of Serving Men from the Dean of Derry, whose mother remembered having seen it on a broadside. It does not seem to have turned up in Ireland since, apart from this confused fragment which Mary got from her father. However, Frank Purslow, in his note to the version included in the Hammond and Gardiner collection, found in Hampshire in 1908, writes of the song and its singer, Albert Doe:
‘Apparently a good singer with a very fine repertoire, some, if not all, of Irish origin. The tune of this, in any case, betrays its country of origin, as it is a variant, a good one, of a tune very much associated with texts of Irish origin, such as The Croppy Boy, The Isle of France, Sweet William, The Wild and Wicked Youth and several others’.
The earliest known text was on a broadside in the mid -17th century, which was said to have been written by one Laurence Price, but Child suggests that he had based this on an earlier popular romance. It has been found among English Travellers, one of the most complete versions being from Dorset gypsy, Caroline Hughes, in the 1960s.
Song transcription:
My brother built me for a bancy bower,
It was decked all over with pinks and flowers,
It was decked all over with the laurel green,
And such a bower that was never seen.
When Sweet William, he got the house alone,
He pulled out his bagpipes and played one tune,
Oh he changed his name oh, by note to note,
From Sweet William into Fair Ellen.
Now he went down to the looking glass,
And there he cut off his yellow locks,
When he changed his name into Fair Ellen.
They could not do him any greater harm
Than to kill the baby lie in his arms,
For to kill the baby lie in his arms,
And to change his name into Fair Ellen.
