Annotation:Elsie Marley
Tune properties and standard notation
ELSIE MARLEY. AKA and see "Alce Marly," "Alcy Marly." AKA - "Elsie Marly." Scottish, English; Jig and Song Tune. England, Northumberland. G Mixolydian (Bremner, Callaghan, Raven, Vickers, Williamson): E Flat Mixolydian (Stokoe). Standard tuning (fiddle). AB (Raven, Stokoe): AABBCC (Callaghan, Gow, Johnson): AABBCCDD (Bremner): One part (Williamson). "This ballad had come down to us with a double claim for preservation from oblivion in the merit of the lively tune itself and the frolicsome spirit of the song, which, whilst gently satirising, at the same time preserves the memory of one who, in her day, had attained some notoriety as a general public entertainer. Elsie (or Alice) Marley was the wife of an innkeeper at the Barley Mow Inn, Pictree, near Chester-le-Street, where her buxom presence and lively humour were doubtless the means of attracting all ranks of society, from the pitman to the viewer, and from keelmen and sailors to tradesmen and gentlemen. The ballad was founded upon a true incident in the life of our heroine, and speedily became to popular all over the district that when Joseph Ritson published his 'Bishopric Garland' in 1784, he considered it of sufficient importance to be included in that collection. A happy temperament, a comfortable life, and an extensive circle of friends did not, however, suffice to save poor Elsie from a share of the 'ills that flesh is heir to,' for in Sykes Local Records, under date 1768, August 5 we read:--'The well-known Alice Marley, who kept a public house at Pictree, near Chester-le-Street, being in a fever, got out of her house and went into a field, where there was an old coal pit full of water, which she fell into and was drowned" (Stokoe & Bruce, 1882). She died in 1768.
Elsie Marley's pub was at Barley Mow, which is between Chester-le-Street (just across the border from Northumberland, in County Durham) and Birtley. It may have been called The Wheatsheaf, and indeed, a pub (though not the original) by that name is there today in which occasional ceilidhs are held.
The tune was still quite popular in Northumberland in 1800, when it appeared in a list of popular Northumbrian song and dance tunes published by Henry Robson. It also appears in the 1762 music manuscript collection of Joseph Barnes, a musician from Carlisle, Cumbria. Glen finds the earliest appearance of the tune in print in Robert Bremner's 1751 or 1757 First Collection (p. 26), although it was also printed by other 18th century publishers (some of whom may predate Bremner's volume), including David Rutherford in Rutherford's Compleat Collection of 200 of the Most Celebrated Country (London, 1756, p. 68), John Johnson's Choice Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 5 (London, 1750, p. 62), and Robert Petrie in his 1796 Fourth Collection (and who characterized the title as describing a 'bumpkin' (Williamson, 1976). Gow (1817) also gives "Country Bumpkin" as either a note or an alternate title.
Di' ye ken Elsie Marley, honey, The wife that sells the barley, honey;
She lost her pocket and all her money,
Aback o' the bush i' the garden, honey.
Elsie Marley's grown se fine,
She won't get up to serve her swine,
But lies in bed till eight or nine,
And surely she does take her time. (Bruce & Stokoe)
The tune is mentioned in the Northumbrian pit mining song "Bykker Hill" in the lines:
Geordie Charleton, he had a pig,
He his it with a shovel and it danced a jig;
All the the way to Walker Shores,
To the tune of 'Elsie Marley'.
Philippe Varlet sees similarities in parts between "Elsie Marly" and Willie Clancy's "Rolling Wave (The)" and O'Neill's "Humors of Trim (The)."
Source for notated version: the 1770 music manuscript book of Northumbrian musician William Vickers [Seattle].
Printed sources: Bremner (A Collection of Scots Reels), 1757; p. 26. Bruce & Stokoe (Northumbrian Minstrelsy), 1882; pp. 112-114. Callaghan (Hardcore English), 2007; p. 71. Gow (Complete Repository), Part 4, 1817; p. 38. Johnson (The Kitchen Musician No. 10: Airs and Melodies of Scotland's Past), 1992 (revised 2001); p. 18. Northumbrian Pipers Tunebook (2nd ed. 1970). Petrie (Fourth Collection of Strathspey, Reels, Jiggs and Country Dances), 1796; p. 22. Raven (English Country Dance Tunes), 1984; p. 116. Seattle (Great Northern/William Vickers), 1987, Part 2; No. 269 (appears as "Alcy Marly"). Williamson (English, Welsh, Scottish and Irish Fiddle Tunes), 1976; p. 48.
Recorded sources: EFDSS CD13, Florida - "Hardcore English" (2007. Various artists). FLP005, Florida - "Florida." Maggie's Music MMCD222, Bonnie Rideout - "Scottish Fire" (2000).
See also listing at:
Jane Keefer's Folk Music Index: An Index to Recorded Sources [1]