The Brookside from Blackbird by Julie Atkin

When Joseph Taylor sang Once I Courted a Damsel for Percy Grainger, he remembered only two verses and in between sang a couple of lines that didn’t belong.

Many decades later, our friend Lincolnshirebased folk song scholar Ruairidh Greig noticed that the rogue lines were from The Brookside, a once popular poem by Richard Monckton Milne (later Lord Houghton), which was published in 1829.

Ruairidh mentioned this to us one day and speculated that Taylor might also have sung the poem to the same tune. Julie tried it – and found it the poem and tune fitted, and that the moods of the tune and poem matched beautifully.

There are lovely modern settings of The Brookside by both Hazel Askew and Barbara Berry, but we think Joseph Taylor’s setting provides another very appropriate alternative. Thanks for the idea Ruairidh!

Gavin Atkin lives, sings and plays in Kent, where he also sails dinghies and a small yacht, publishes a boating weblog, and runs events and workshops focusing on traditional and old fashioned music.

See:

intheboatshed.net

and

singdanceandplay.net

singdanceandplay.net