Ed de Moel

Child Ballads - Narrative

The Crafty Farmer

    1. 'The Crafty Farmer,' Logan, A Pedlar's Pack, p. 126, from a chap-book of 1796; 'The Crafty Miller,' Maidment, Scotish Ballads and Songs, 1859, p. 208, from a Glasgow stall-copy; a stall-copy, printed by M. Randall, Stirling.
    2. 'The Yorkshire Farmer,' Kidson, Traditional Tunes, p. 140, from The Manchester Songster, 1792.
    3. 'Saddle to Rags,' Dixon, Ancient Poems, etc., p. 126, Percy Society, vol. xvii., taken down from the recitation of a Yorkshire yeoman in 1845.
    4. 'The Thief Outwitted,' Notes and Queries, Fourth Series, XI, 112, 1873, taken down by E. McC., Guernsey, "from the recitation of an old woman now in her eighty-second year, who learnt it in her childhood from her father, a laborer from the neighborhood of Yeovil."
    5. 'The Silly Old Man,' Baring-Gould and Sheppard,, Songs and Ballads of the West, 3d ed., No 18, Part I, p. 38, as sung by the Rev. E. Luscombe, a Devonshire man, about 1850 (Part IV, p. xviii).
    6. 'The Silly Old Man,' Miss M.H. Mason's Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs, p. 43, as sung in Devonshire.
    Version A

An old farmer who is on his way to pay his rent imparts the fact to a gentlemanlike highwayman who overtakes him. The highwayman cautions him not to be too communi- cative, since there are many thieves on the roads. The old man has no fear; his money is safe in his saddle-bags. At the right time and place the thief bids him stand and deliver. The farmer throws his saddle over a hedge; the thief dismounts to fetch it, and gives his horse to the farmer to hold; the farmer mounts the thief's horse and rides off. The thief hacks the saddle to pieces to get at the bags. Arrived at his landlord's, the farmer opens the thief's portmanteau, and finds in it six hundred pounds. The farmer's wife is made very happy by her husband's report of his performances; the thief's money will help to enlarge her daughter's marriage portion.

This very ordinary ballad has enjoyed great popularity, and is given for that reason and as a specimen of its class. There is an entirely similar one, in which a Norfolk (Rygate, Cheshire) farmer's daughter going to market to sell corn is substituted for the farmer going to pay his rent: 'The Norfolk Maiden,' in The Longing Maid's Garland, of the last century, without place or date;[foot-note] 'The Maid of Rygate,' Logan's Pedlar's Pack, p. 133; The Highwayman Outwitted,' Leigh's Ballads and Legends of Cheshire, p. 267. Another variety is of a Yorkshire boy sent to a fair to sell a cow: 'Yorkshire Bite,' etc., The Turnip-Sack Garland (like The Longing Maid's Garland, one of a collection of Heber's);[foot-note] 'The Yorkshire Bite,' "from a collection of ballads circa 1782," Logan's Pedlar's Pack, p. 131; 4 The Crafty Ploughboy,' Ingledew's Ballads and Songs of Yorkshire, p. 209.

For certain ballads in which a country girl, beset by an amorous gentleman, mounts his horse and makes off with his valise or the like, see II, 483, and the page preceding.

'The Politick Squire, or, The Highwaymen catch'd in their own play,' is a ballad of a gentleman who, having been robbed by five highwaymen that then purpose to shoot him, tells them that he is the Pretender, and is taken by them as such to a justice. The squire makes explanations, four of the thieves are hanged, and the fifth, who had shown some mercy, is transported,[foot-note]

This page most recently updated on 18-May-2011, 20:28:55.
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