Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/453

 Early American Ballads. 105

��EARLY AMERICAN BALLADS. in

Mention has been made of the change in taste which took place during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with the result that English popular ballads of the ancient type ceased to be composed, while there was a continuous production of ballads of later character, possessing less poetic value. Examples were given of songs belong- ing to this later class, of which some have been imported into Amer- ica, while others owe their composition to the new world. Among the latter was a ballad entitled " Springfield Mountain," of which two verses were given, with a request for additional information. In reply to this desire a number of communications have been received, which help to illuminate the history of the ballad in question.

Before giving these versions, it will be well to recur to the curious " Account of the deth of the child of Daniel and Sarah Beckwith " (vol. xii. p. 242), written in 1773, and preserved only in manuscript, which has been printed in the previous paper. In this communica- tion, no note is made of the locality to which the youth belonged, nor does it appear under what circumstances the elegy was com- posed. But the verses now to be cited are so nearly parallel as to constitute a probability that those relating to Beckwith were also associated with mortuary custom, and perhaps recited at the funeral of the young man.

Isaac Orcutt. This ballad is communicated by Miss Julia D. Whiting, of Deer- field, Mass., who relates the circumstances of composition as fol- lows : "About one hundred years ago, my grandmother, then a young woman of thirty, was living in Amherst, Mass. A young man by the name of Isaac Orcutt went to Westfield to work, and was there killed in an accident, and brought home to be buried. An old lady, whose name is unknown to me, composed these verses, and they were sung at his burial by six young women (of whom my grandmother was one), dressed in white, who stood around his grave. I dare say the old lady composed the tune as well as the words ; at any rate, words and tune go well together." 1 See vol. xii. pp. 241-255.

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