> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > Cold and Raw
> June Tabor > Songs > Cold and Raw
> Nic Jones > Songs > Cold and Raw

Cold and Raw / The Maid That Sold Her Barley

[ Roud 3007 ; Ballad Index ShH60 ; Bodleian Roud 3007 ; trad.]

A.L. Lloyd sang Cold and Raw in 1966 on his album The Best of A.L. Lloyd, accompanied by Alf Edwards on concertina. He noted:

An old song and a widespread favourite. Thomas d'Urfey included a version of it in the drollery collection: Pills to Purge Melancholy, first published in 1699. Some think he wrote it himself, but that seems doubtful. It has survived in many variants and with several tunes in England, Scotland and Ireland, and turns up in the repertory of semi-nomadic non-Romany travelling folk improperly called “tinkers”, in the relatively modern form heard here.

The High Level Ranters sang Cold and Raw on their 1973 Trailer album A Mile to Ride.

June Tabor sang Cold and Raw in 1977 on her album Ashes and Diamonds, accompanied by Jon Gillaspie on synthesiser and recorder and Nic Jones on fiddle. This track was also included in 1993 on her CD Anthology, A live recording from Bath Festival on 21 May 1990 is on her box set Always where she noted:

It's from an early collection of songs collected by a chap called D'Urfey from Wit and Mirth: or, Pills to Purge Melancholy and the tune is in Playford called Stingo. I liked this song because it's the usual pretty girl and the libidinous suitor but it's a lovely antidote to all the songs in which the rich person does get his wicked way and the poor girl probably doesn't get the money either.

Having recorded it originally on Ashes and Diamonds I came back to it because it was such a jaunty song. This was the version that Andy Cutting and Mark Emerson came up with. It all worked so well that I think they've lifted the song even more than in the original version.

Jolly Jack sang Cold and Raw on their 1988 Fellside album A Long Time Travelling.

Danny Spooner sang Cold and Raw on his 2013 CD Gorgeous, Game Girls. He noted:

Some people believe that money can buy whatever they desire. Here the astute young woman dampens her suitor's ardour with a few home truths. This neat piece of moral rhetoric appears to have originally been published in a huge collection of songs collected by Thomas d'Urfey between 1698-1720 and called Pills to Purge Melancholy. I learned it from an old lighter-man friend George Phillips.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd sings Cold and Raw

Cold and raw the wind do blow,
Bleak in the morning early;
And all the fields was covered in snow
And winter come severely.
As I was walking on my way
I met a farmer's daughter;
With cherry cheek and glittering eye
She made my mouth to water.

I asked this girl where was she going
Up in the morning early.
She answered, to the next market town
A-purpose to sell her barley.
Now in my pocket, as well I knew,
Half a sovereign lay squarely.
I said, “Put your journey out of your mind
And I bargain for your barley.

Half a sovereign could buy delight
And I would love you dearly
If you would stay with me all night
And be gone in the morning early.”
“If I should stay all night with you
And we made a young kid together,
Oh you'd be gone ere the nine months end
And then where would I find a father?”

I said that she would be my queen
And I would never wrong her,
She said she knew I'd married been
For seven year or longer.
So now young man, no longer roam
But do your business fairly,
Keep your money for your wife at home
And some other shall have my barley.

June Tabor sings Cold and Raw

Cold and raw the North did blow,
Bleak in the morning early;
All the trees were hid in snow
Dagl'd by winter yearly.
Gentlemen riding o'er the heather
Met with a farmer's daughter;
Her rosy cheeks and her bonny brow
They made his mouth to water.

Quickly he saluted me,
Meaning to shew his breeding;
I bowed to him right gracefully,
His courtesy exceeding.
He ask'd me where I went so soon
And longed to begin a parley.
I told him to the next market town
A-purpose to sell my barley.

“In this purse, sweet girl,” says he,
“Twenty pounds lie fairly
Seek no further one to buy
For I'll take all your barley.
Twenty more would buy delight
Your body I love so dearly,
If you would lay with me all night
And go home in the morning early.”

“If twenty pounds could buy the globe
It's this I never do, sir.
Or were my kin as poor as Job
I wo'd not raise 'em so, sir.
If I lay with you this night
We'd get a young child together
And you'd be gone ere the nine months end
And where should I find a father?”

He told me he had married been
Fourteen years and longer,
Or else he'd take me for his own
And tie the knot much stronger.
I bade him then no further roam
But manage his wedlock fairly;
And keep his gold for his wife at home
And some other shall have my barley.