“Camden Town”
Description
Singer meets a pretty girl, asks her to sit by him (and proposes marriage; they make love); she refuses to marry a man who has led her astray, whereupon he pushes her into the river to drown (or she drowns herself, whereupon he is seized with remorse)
Notes
This seems to be an amalgamation of "Down by Blackwaterside" and "The Wexford Girl," but as it shares few words with either song, and the denouement is quite different, I classify it separately. - PJS
Roud lumps it with "Pretty Little Miss" [Laws P18], and that, given its textual state, is possible. But, when in doubt, we split. - RBW
Mary Delaney's version on IRTravellers01 includes a verse from "The Silvery Tide"; specifically "Now as Willie, he went out walking, He went out to take fresh air, And he seen his own love Mary In the waves of the silvery tide." - BS
Cross references
- cf. "The Wexford Girl (The Oxford, Lexington, or Knoxville Girl; The Cruel Miller; etc.)" [Laws P35] (plot)
- cf. "Down by Blackwaterside" (plot)
Recordings
- Mary Delaney, "In Charlestown There Lived a Lass" (on IRTravellers01)
References
- MacSeegTrav 76, "Camden Town" (2 texts, 2 tunes)
- Roud #564
- BI, McCST076