From 300 national melodies of the British Isles. Vol. 3 – 100. Irish airs, arranged for the piano forte by Cork musician, editor and collector William Forde (1797–1850). ‘The Legacy’ is tune number 80, and you’ll find it in this scan of the original publication on the ITMA website.
How, or why, or when the tune came to my attention I have absolutely no idea.
The Legacy
Played on four-stop one-row melodeon in C.
Here’s a tune from the Welch family of Bosham in Sussex, via The Sussex Tune Book. I normally call it ‘Stoney Steps’, but on checking, I find that actually the Welch family had it as ‘Stone Steps’. It’s a tune which seems to have been played all over Britain in the late 18th / early 19th century – the EFDSS publication Hardcore English has no fewer than 8 versions, taken from printed and manuscript sources from Kent right up to Tyneside and Scotland, and various places in between.
I can clearly remember the first time I heard the tune. It must have been around 1982 or ’83, and multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Nigel Chippendale was the guest at Faversham Folk Club. He launched into the tune, but after 16 bars ground to a halt – he just couldn’t remember the B music. Well, we’d have thought no more of it, but in the interval he went out, found a phone box, rang Vic Gammon, got him to hum the tune down the line, and then proceeded to play the hornpipe in the second half. Chris Wood and I were mightily impressed by this, and by the tune itself. We learned it from The Sussex Tune Book, and ‘Stone Steps’ became part of the Polkabilly repertoire. It’s a tune I’ve rather neglected in recent years, but is definitely worth reviving.
Stone Steps Hornpipe
Played on C/G anglo-concertina
A tune from the John Clare MSS, learned from George Deacon’s John Clare and the Folk Tradition.
The Traditional Tune Archive tells us that ‘Lovely Nancy’ was
A hugely popular melody… printed in numerous mid-18th century collections and tutors, such as Longman’s Compleat Instructions for the German Flute (1796), Thompson’s Compleat Tutor for the French Horn (1755), and Calliope, or English Harmony (1746). “Lovely Nancy” even can be heard today on a musical clock made by Joseph Ellicott in Bucks County, Pa., around the 1770’s. It was employed by the British military in America as a signal for retreat (Purser, 1992) [Ed.: note that’ retreat’ meant the ceasing of the days activities in the evening at camp, not a withdraw from combat], and was similarly employed by American fifers in the Revolutionary War (Keller, 1992). It appears in many American musician’s copybooks of the period (and nearly all surviving fifers manuscripts from the War for Independence), such as those of Captain George Bush, Giles Gibbs (1760-1780), fluter Henry Beck, Abel Joslens, Thomas Nixon (1762-1842, Framingham, Ct.) and John Greenwood, as well as that of Henry Livingston, Jr.
Which reminds me that the tune was used – appropriately enough – as the theme music for Andy Hamilton’s American War of Independence sitcom on Radio 4, Revolting People.
Lovely Nancy
Played on C/G anglo-concertina
I’m not sure when or where I learned this tune, but it was almost certainly, directly or indirectly, from the Old Swan Band.
I’ve always thought of it as a country dance tune, so was surprised to find that it’s in Lionel Bacon’s Handbook of Morris Dances as a Bledington dance. Actually, the details of the dance seem a little sketchy – maybe it’s like ‘Young Collins’, or possibly ‘Maid of the Mill’; perhaps it’s an Idbury dance; and maybe this is the right tune for the dance – Kenworthy Schofield said it was danced to the “usual country dance tune”, and this is the version of the tune which Sharp included in Set 1 of his Country Dance Tunes (1909).
Sharp collected two very similar versions of the tune in 1909 – from Henry Sturch of Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire on the 23rd August (this version), and then from William Preece of Dilwyn, Herefordshire, on 29th December.
Flowers of Edinburgh
Played on C/G anglo-concertina
A country dance tune – and one of my favourites – from the great Bill Kimber of Headington Quarry.
I included Kimber’s playing of this tune in my English Tunebook post 3 years ago.
As I wrote at the time, I first came across this tune as an Irish fling, under the title ‘Love will you marry me’, on the De Danann LP Selected, Jigs, Reels and Songs. On that record Johnny Moynihan sings a couple of verses to the tune – here it is in a 1976 recording. A couple years later Nic Jones recorded it as ‘Some Say the Devil’s Dead’ – noting that his version was inspired by Johnny Moynihan’s performance on the De Danann record.
The tune apparently started life in Scotland, as ‘The Lass o’ Gowrie‘, but a good tune gets around. Phil Tanner from the Gower Peninsula in South Wales had it as ‘Over The Hills To Gowerie’. While in Oxfordshire the tune’s title was altered once more, and became associated with the struggles of a group of female agricultural workers.
This is from the Tradtune Archive
“Over the hills to glory” is a phrase associated with an incident in southern England. In 1873 sixteen women from Ascott-under-Wychwood were imprisoned for a short time for their part in forming an agricultural workers union, in helping to prevent “scabs” from replacing their men on the farm. Known as the ‘Ascott Martyrs’ the women garnered much public sympathy and quite a bit of press, before hastily being pardoned by Queen Victoria. A placard on the village green reads: “This seat was erected to celebrate the centenary of the Ascott Martyrs, the 16 women who were sent to prison in 1873 for the part they played in the founding of the Agricultural Workers Union when they were sent ‘over the hills to glory’.”
You can read more about the Ascott Martyrs at www.ascottmartyrs.co.uk.
“Ascott Martyrs quilt, 1873”. Double-sided quilt made by Martha Smith, one of the “Ascott Martyrs”, and now held by the People’s History Museum.
Over the hills to glory
Played on C/G anglo-concertina
One of the very finest morris tunes. I always think of this as a Fieldtown dance, because Oyster Women used to dance it in the Fieldtown style, although actually it comes from another Oxfordshire tradition, Ascott-Under-Wychwood. As danced at Ascott, there are no slows, but the slows – as introduced into the Fieldtown dance- really bring out the grandeur of the tune.
I asked my friends Chris Wood and Chris Taylor to play this at the end of my Mum’s funeral, 9 years ago – and a very fine job they made of it although, understandably, my mind wasn’t entirely focused on the quality of the music.
Valentine
Played on C/G anglo-concertina
Playing the fool with Oyster Women, 1986. The sling was the result of a sticking injury earlier in the day. I’ve no idea who provided the pith helmet.
Squeezed Out 