Annotation:Lay by your wheel Betty
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LAY BY YOUR WHEEL, BETTY. Scottish, English; Air (3/4 time). G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One part. The title refers to a spinning wheel, and Betty is being asked to stop working. The mid-18th century song was sung by a Miss Brown at Sadler's Wells, and appears in The American Mock Bird (New York, 1764).
My Daddy was gone to the Market two mile
Chorus:
Lay by your wheel, Betsy, come hither a maying,
Whether there is some relationwship to the present melody is unknown.
Source for notated version:
Printed sources: Aird (Selection of Scotch, English, Irish and Foreign Airs, vol. 5), Glasgow, 1801; No. 169, p. 63.
Recorded sources: