Vaughan Williams’s Journey into Folk: 25 April 1904
‘The Golden Glove’, Ann Humphreys, Ingrave, Essex
A nobleman’s daughter is to be married to a young squire, but she instantly falls in love with the farmer who has been chosen to give her away at the wedding. Instead of marrying, she takes to her bed, but then disguises herself as a man and goes hunting in the places where the farmer lives. Still in her disguise she falls into discussion with him about the wedding that didn’t happen, and he declares that he loved the bride that he was supposed to give away. She gives him a golden glove, claiming that she found it while hunting. When she gets home, she sends out notice that she has lost a golden glove and that she will marry the man that returns it to her – and so they are married and live happily ever after.
A note stuck in Vaughan Williams’s manuscript book (probably written by Georgiana Heatley -see 14 April 1904) says that this fairy tale song was sung ‘by Ann Smyth, born in 1794 at Blackmore in Essex, to her granddaughter at Laindon in Essex, now Mrs Humphreys, aged 72.’ She lived in Ingrave, close to Mr Potiphar; and the Heatley sisters visited her regularly. This is a very long song of eleven verses and a testament to Humphreys’ good memory.
Vaughan Williams noted down eight songs from Humphreys on this day, including ‘Tarry Trowsers’, published in the Journal of the Folk Song Society (8, 1906). A wax cylinder recording survives of a woman singing ‘Tarry Trowsers’ and ‘Bushes and Briars’ dated 04.04.1904, which is attributed to either Ann Humphreys or Lucy Broadwood. You can listen to the recording of ‘Tarry Trowsers’/’Bushes and Briars’ at https://www.vwml.org/record/CYL/25.
Although it is Humphreys’ version of the song, the tone and pronunciation of the voice on the cylinder doesn’t sound like an elderly working-class woman from Essex, and the early April date doesn’t coincide with Vaughan Williams’s visit. The recording is possibly of Broadwood but if the cylinder really was made in 1904, I think there is a chance it is Georgiana Heatley singing – more research is needed!
This was the last day of Vaughan Williams’s trip to Essex. Before he left, he visited the Billericay Union – the workhouse – and recorded eleven songs from John Denny, including another version of ‘The Farmer’s Boy’ [see 18 April 1904]. After this, the composer regularly visited elderly residents in workhouses to collect songs. He found that they were delighted ‘to find a visitor interested in the music they loved…’
Heatley noted that Ann Humphreys would always sing the ‘-ed’ at the end of a word as a separate syllable – as in ‘marr-i-ed’ here; and that she pronounced Tamworth as ‘Timworth’. She also commented that this tune ‘has a curious little turn in the 3rd and 4th line.’
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library link: https://www.vwml.org/record/RVW2/2/68
Roud No.141
Next post: 23 May