Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
The Little Scotch Girl / The Creel / The Wee Toun Clerk / Sweet Mazie / Coochie Coochie Coo Go Way / The Keach I the Creel (Child No. 281) - Sung by folklorist Herbert Halpert (1911–2000) at a lecture on Child Ballads at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Recorded on July 15, 1958. Norman Cazden collected the song circa 1941 from Mr. George Edwards of Burlington, Vermont, Chittenden County, New England, USA. Mr. Edwards was born in East Riding, in the north of England. Cazden published it in two books, Abelard Folk Song Book Pt. 2 (1958) and Folk Songs of the Catskills (1982).
00:00:00 The Little Scotch Girl (Noise Reduced) - Herbert Halpert
00:03:00 The Little Scotch Girl (Original Tape) - Herbert Halpert
Link to original recording: https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz00090x87
Note by Kevin W.:
The only version of "The Keach in the Creel" (Child 281) from America known to me. Curiously it is also the only 20th century collected version known to me that follows the repeated last line chorus of Prof. Child's texts.
"The Keach in the Creel" means "The Ride in the Basket".
All Scottish field recordings I've heard have a "Ricky doo dum day" or similar chorus, and Irish versions also have variations on a nonsense chorus.
Song transcription:
A little Scotch girl, she went down town
Some white fish for to buy
There she got acquainted with a little town clerk
And he followed her by and by, O by
And he followed her by and by.
'Where are you going, sweet maid?' says he
'And whereon do you be?
Let this night be ever so dark.
I'll come and I'll visit thee, O thee,
I'll come and I'll visit thee.'
My mamma locks the door without
My papa keeps the key,
Unless you are such a silly old witch
You'll never come up to me, O me,
You'll never get up to me.
'Unless you have a ladder built
Thirty steps and three
Build it to the chimney top
And then come down to me, O me.
And then come down to me."
The little town clerk he had a brother,
And a wee little wit was he,
Built his brother a great muckle ladder
Of thirty steps and three, O three
Of thirty steps and three
Put the click to his right shoulder
And the creel was to the pin,
Drew him up to the chimney top
And he let the bonny clerk in, O in
And he let the bonny clerk in
The old folks layed in a room close by
A-hearing what was said,
'I'll lay my life,' said the silly old wife,
There's a man in our daughter's bed, O bed
There's a man in our daughter's bed
Good old man, he gets upstairs
To see, could this be true?
She drew the bonny clerk close in her arms
And covered him over in blue, O blue
And she covered him over in blue.
'What brings you here, papa,' she said,
'What brings you here so late?
You disturb me of my evening prayers
And O, but they are sweet, O sweet,
And O, but they are sweet.'
Good old man he gets downstairs,
Said, 'You didn't tell me true,
Our daughter's got a great muckle bookie in her arms
She's praying for me and you, O you,
She's praying for me and you!'
Good old woman gets upstairs,
To see, could this be true?
What in the devil should take her foot,
But into the creel she flew, O flew,
In the creel she flew!
The brother at the chimney top,
Finding the creel was full,
Put the click to his right shoulder
And fast to her did pull, O pull,
And fast to her did pull.
He shook her up, he shook her down
Gave her a right downfall
Every click in the old girl's rib
Played knick-knack to the wall, O wall,
Played knick-knack on the wall.
Here's to the blue, and the bonny blue,
And here's to the blue does well,
And every woman that is jealous of her daughter
Might fall into the creel, O creel,
Might fall into the creel.
The Little Scotch Girl / The Creel / The Wee Toun Clerk / Sweet Mazie / Coochie Coochie Coo Go Way / The Keach I the Creel (Child No. 281) - Sung by folklorist Herbert Halpert (1911–2000) at a lecture on Child Ballads at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. Recorded on July 15, 1958. Norman Cazden collected the song circa 1941 from Mr. George Edwards of Burlington, Vermont, Chittenden County, New England, USA. Mr. Edwards was born in East Riding, in the north of England. Cazden published it in two books, Abelard Folk Song Book Pt. 2 (1958) and Folk Songs of the Catskills (1982).
00:00:00 The Little Scotch Girl (Noise Reduced) - Herbert Halpert
00:03:00 The Little Scotch Girl (Original Tape) - Herbert Halpert
Link to original recording: https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz00090x87
Note by Kevin W.:
The only version of "The Keach in the Creel" (Child 281) from America known to me. Curiously it is also the only 20th century collected version known to me that follows the repeated last line chorus of Prof. Child's texts.
"The Keach in the Creel" means "The Ride in the Basket".
All Scottish field recordings I've heard have a "Ricky doo dum day" or similar chorus, and Irish versions also have variations on a nonsense chorus.
Song transcription:
A little Scotch girl, she went down town
Some white fish for to buy
There she got acquainted with a little town clerk
And he followed her by and by, O by
And he followed her by and by.
'Where are you going, sweet maid?' says he
'And whereon do you be?
Let this night be ever so dark.
I'll come and I'll visit thee, O thee,
I'll come and I'll visit thee.'
My mamma locks the door without
My papa keeps the key,
Unless you are such a silly old witch
You'll never come up to me, O me,
You'll never get up to me.
'Unless you have a ladder built
Thirty steps and three
Build it to the chimney top
And then come down to me, O me.
And then come down to me."
The little town clerk he had a brother,
And a wee little wit was he,
Built his brother a great muckle ladder
Of thirty steps and three, O three
Of thirty steps and three
Put the click to his right shoulder
And the creel was to the pin,
Drew him up to the chimney top
And he let the bonny clerk in, O in
And he let the bonny clerk in
The old folks layed in a room close by
A-hearing what was said,
'I'll lay my life,' said the silly old wife,
There's a man in our daughter's bed, O bed
There's a man in our daughter's bed
Good old man, he gets upstairs
To see, could this be true?
She drew the bonny clerk close in her arms
And covered him over in blue, O blue
And she covered him over in blue.
'What brings you here, papa,' she said,
'What brings you here so late?
You disturb me of my evening prayers
And O, but they are sweet, O sweet,
And O, but they are sweet.'
Good old man he gets downstairs,
Said, 'You didn't tell me true,
Our daughter's got a great muckle bookie in her arms
She's praying for me and you, O you,
She's praying for me and you!'
Good old woman gets upstairs,
To see, could this be true?
What in the devil should take her foot,
But into the creel she flew, O flew,
In the creel she flew!
The brother at the chimney top,
Finding the creel was full,
Put the click to his right shoulder
And fast to her did pull, O pull,
And fast to her did pull.
He shook her up, he shook her down
Gave her a right downfall
Every click in the old girl's rib
Played knick-knack to the wall, O wall,
Played knick-knack on the wall.
Here's to the blue, and the bonny blue,
And here's to the blue does well,
And every woman that is jealous of her daughter
Might fall into the creel, O creel,
Might fall into the creel.
