A North Country Maid polka

A North Country Maid has been added to 12 tunebooks.

Download ABC

One setting

1
X: 1
T: A North Country Maid
R: polka
M: 2/4
L: 1/8
K: Amin
|:E|A2 AB|c2 BA|B2 Bc|d2 cB|
A2 AB|c2 BA|^GB e_e|=e2 e=f|
=g2 ed|c2 Bc|dc BA|^G2 AB|
c2 BA|^G2 ^F^G|A2 AG|A2 e=f|
g2 ed|c2 Bc|dc BA|^G2 AB|
c2 BA|^G2 ^F^G|A2 AG|A3:|

Four comments

A North Country Maid

This is the tune of a well-known drawing room folk song that begins:
"A North Country maid up to London hath strayed,
But O, with her nature it did not agree…"
- And, quite reasonably IMO, she wants out of the place and to go back North.
(I’m told that in the days of servants, girls from the North were well regarded, as being more diligent than some others - the “Polish plumbers” of their occupation.)

I don’t know the history of the song or the tune. The latter is thoroughly chromaticised and I can’t think of any trad tune from which it could have been derived.

There are bum notes in it, as usual. I’ll try to alter the abc’s where they occur.

In the lower part of the sheet music, two F’s with a natural sign in front of them are meant to be played sharp.

ABC’S OK NOW!
(There was the odd other glitch.)