The Foggy Dew

Original Track ID

SA1952.01.B6 (B17)

Original Tape ID

SA1952.001

Summary

A man courts a young maid for a winter and part of the summer. One night, apparently frightened or upset by something, she comes to his bedside weeping, and he invites her into his bed. Later he meets her again, sighing about "the foggy dew". He marries the girl, saying that they look forward to having several children together.

Willie Mathieson learned the song from Jimmy Jaffray.

Item Notes

Text and music transcribed in School of Scottish Studies. 6 verses, but 12 repeats of the same melody; other versions have longer melody. The "foggy dew" is unexplained, but is sometimes thought to refer symbolically to chastity or virginity. This song is a version of a 1689 broadside, in the Pepys ballad collection, 'The Fright'ned York-shire Damosel, or, Fears Dispers'd by Pleasure', ([[http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/drinkingsongs/html/books-and-manuscripts/1600-1699/1689--pepys-broadside/index.htm]], accessed 4 December 2008).

Jimmy Jaffray was the third horseman at Drakemyre when Willie Mathieson was in his teens.

See:
Greig-Duncan vol. 7, pp. 455-459, no. 1495
Willie Mathieson's MSS I:38

Recording Location

Language

English, Scots

Genre

Song Information

Collection

SoSS

Classification

R558 GD1495 LO3

Source Type

Reel to reel

Audio Quality

Good