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Child Waters (Child 63)

from Blood & Roses Volume 1 by Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger

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Professor Child's comment on this ballad has often been quoted. He calls it "this charming ballad, which has perhaps no superior in English and if not in English perhaps nowhere." (This, despite the fact that all his ten sets were reported from Scotland.) The ballad has not been reported from -England and is hardly known across the Atlantic, the two main American texts having been collected from Arkansas and North Carolina (our text). Even so, this American variant gives the impression that it has not yet been sung in.

The central theme is the same as that in "Fair Annie": patient Griselda, the long-suffering, usually pregnant heroine who follows her wayward lover, awaiting the reawakening of his dulled affections. The trials he vie-its upon her, as well as a number of other motifs, are shared with several other ballads.

It is interesting that our anti-hero is not named, for in the British texts he is Child Waters, Lord John, Lord Thomas, Sweet Willie, or just plain Willie. The North Carolina set was taken from the singing of Mrs. Rebecca Gordon of Cat's Head. on Saluda Mountain, Henderson County, N.C. The woman who collected it reported another version, apparently too scandalous to print.

lyrics

I warn you all, you ladies fair,
That do wear red and brown,
That you don't leave your father's house
To run with a boy from town.

For here am I, a lady fair,
That did wear red and brown,
And I did leave my father's house
To run with a boy from town.

He's mounted on his big white horse
And fast away rode he;
She dressed herself like a little footboy
She ran at the horse's knee.

And when they came to the river's edge
That ran so deep and wide;
"O, will you swim?" her lover said,
"Or hang on the horse's side?"

The very first step that lady took,
It reached up to her knee;
"O alas, alas!" that lady said,
"I fear you're drownding me!

"Lie still, lie still, my baby dear,
"Don't work your mother woe;
"Your father's high on high horseback
He cares not for us two."

But when they came to the other side,
She's mounted on a stone;
He's turned around his big white horse
And took her on behind.

O, do you see yon high castel
That shines so white and free?
There is a lady in that castel
That will part you and me.
9 She will eat the good white bread
You will eat but corn;
And you will set and curse the hour
Ever you was born.

"If there's a Lady in that castel
"That will part you and I;
"The day I see her," EIlen said,
"That day I will die."

Four-and-twenty ladies gay
Welcomed the young man home;
But the fairest one among them all
In the great hall stood alone.

And then upspoke his old mother,
And a wise woman was she:
"Where did you come in with that little footboy
"That looks so sad at thee?

"Sometimes his cheek is rosy red
"Sometimes it's pale and wan;
"He looks like a woman deep in love,
"Or caught in deadly sin."

It makes me smile, my mother dear,
To hear them words from thee,
That's but a lord's own younger son
Who for love have followed me.

Rise up, rise up. my little footboy,
Go feed my horse his hay.
O, that I will, my master dear,
Fast as ever I may.

She took the hay in her soft, white hands
She ran out from the hall,
She ran into that great stable
And into the horse's stall.

And there she did begin to weep,
She did begin to mourn,
For even among them great horse-feet
She had to bear her son.

Lie still, lie still, my baby dear,
Thou pledge of careless love:
I would thy father was a king,
Thy mother in her grave.

Rise up, rise up, my darling son,
Go see how she do fare;
For I heard a woman and her baby
Calling for your care.

Up he rose and down he goes
Into the barn went he,
"Fear not, fear not, Fair Ellen," he said,
"There's no-one here but me,"

Up he took his little young son,
And give to him sweet milk;
And up he took Fair Ellen then
And dressed her in green silk.

credits

from Blood & Roses Volume 1, released September 12, 1979
Peggy Seeger - vocals, banjo

Produced by Neill MacColl
Engineered by Nikki Cohen & Nigel Sharpe
Recorded at Pathway Studios, London

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all rights reserved

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Ewan MacColl London, UK

This site is maintained by the MacColl family, aiming to make Ewan's catalogue available to download.
Ewan MacColl is known to most as a songwriter and singer, but he was also of significant influence in the worlds of theatre and radio broadcasting. His art reached huge numbers through the folk clubs, greater numbers through his recordings and untold millions through the radio. ... more

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