Annotation:Round about Ferryhill
X:1 % T:Round about Ferryhill M:12/8 L:1/8 R:Jig S:William Vickers’ 1770 music manuscript collection (Northumberland, p. 70). F: http://www.farnearchive.com/show_images.asp?id=R0307003&image=1 K:G c|B2D AFD|c2E EGA|A2D AFD d2D DFA:| |:dfd faf e2c ege|dfd faf f2d faf| geg fdf e2c ege|fAB AFA d2D DFA:|]
ROUND ABOUT FERRYHILL. English, Jig (12/8 time). England, Northumberland. D Mixolydian. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. Vickers manuscript researcher Matt Seattle notes that the jig is not found elsewhere, and that 'Ferryhill' probably refers to Ferryhill in County Durham. George Nesham's North-country sketches, notes, essays and reviews gives:
Bishop Middleham [near Ferryhill] must have been a pretty spot in the ancient palatinate days, and some of its houses still wear an old-world aspect. The young women here have the reputation of being exceedingly fair-skinned and pretty, but coy, and to them used to be applied the couplet —
Round about Ferryhill, hey for Hett
There's many a bonny lass, but few to get.
Lean's Collectanea (1891), a volume of proverbs, sayings and folklore collected by Vincent Stuckey Lean, gives the same rhyme. Ferryhill and Hett are "Two villages at no great distance from Durham" notes an editor.