Annotation:Cumberland Nelly (1)

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CUMBERLAND NELLY [1]. English, Dance Tune (2/4 time). England, North-West. E Minor. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The county of Cumberland is first mentioned in the 10th century and is derived from the name of its inhabitants: the ancient Celtic people called the Brittons who were driven into the hills of the West of England by the Anglo-Saxon invaders-they took to calling themselves the Cymry, or brotherhood, in their time of desperation. There is a song in the Roxburgh Collection entitled "Cumberland Nelly; or, The North Country Lovers", directed to be sung to the tune of "The Lass that comes to bed to me." It begins:

There was a lass of Cumberland,
A bonny lass of high degree;
There was a lass, her name was Nell,
The blithest lass that e'er you did see.
O! To bed to me, to bed to me.


Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Knowles (Northern Frisk), 1988; No. 5.

Recorded sources:




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