LASS OF THE MILL. AKA - "Lass of Balcock Mill (The)." English, Air (whole time). D Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). ABCD. "The Lass of Balcock Mill" was a song (set to the tune of "The Abbot of Canterbury") printed in The Gentleman's Magazine (vol. 13, 1743, p. 267). The first few stanzas go:
Universal harmony or, the gentleman and ladie's social companion
Who has e'er been at Baldock, must needs know the mill, With the sign of the horse at the foot of the hill; Where the grave and the gay, the clown and the beau, And the old and they young all promiscuously go Derry down, etc.
To this mill tho' a multitude daily repair, It is not for the sake of the drink or the air; For the far greater part, let them say what they will, Go to see and admire the sweet lass of the miss. Derry down, &c.
for, the man of this mill has a daughter so fair With so easy a shape and so graceful an air; That once on the river's green bank as she stood, I believ'd it was Venus just sprung from the flood. Derry down, &c.
It was much anthologized and appeared in numerous 18th century songsters, and was set to various melodies.
