New in February 2016: Wilfrid Gibson’s ‘Devilswater’

Wilfrid Gibson’s poem ‘Devilswater’,  set to music by James Gillespie, appears on the recently launched Brothers Gillespie CD, Songs from the Outlands. The poem, which refers  to places near Hexham, Gibson’s Northumberland hometown, was influenced by the regional folk tales and Border Ballads he heard from childhood; I think Gibson would have loved the Gillespies’ version, which fits into this tradition. You can find out more and listen to the song on the Brothers Gillespie website. To celebrate the occasion, I have uploaded the poem here.

Devilswater

Up the hill and over the hill,
Down the valley by Dipton Mill,
Down the valley to Devilswater
Rode the parson’s seventh daughter.

Her heart was light, her eyes were wild —
Seventh child of a seventh child —
Down the valley to Devilswater
Rode the parson’s black-eyed daughter.

Down she rode by the bridle-track.
Down she rode, and never came back —
Never back to the Devilswater
Came the parson’s black-eyed daughter.

Up the hill and over the hill,
Down the valley by Dipton Mill,
High and low the parson sought her
Sought his seventh black-eyed daughter.

He tripped as he trod the bridle track,
A bramble tore his coat of black,
And he stood on the brink of Devilswater
And cursed, and called her the devil’s daughter.

* * *

Up the hill and over the hill,
Rode a black-eyed gipsy Jill,
Down the valley to Devilswater
Rode the devil’s black-eyed daughter.

Rode in a yellow caravan,
By the side of a merry black-eyed man;
Down to the bank of Devilswater
Rode the devil’s merry daughter.

Her heart was light, her eyes were wild,
As kneeling down with her little child,
She christened her bairn in the Devilswater —
The black-eyed brat of the devil’s daughter.

Low she laughed as she hugged it tight,
And it clapped its hands at the golden light
That glanced and danced on the Devilswater —
To think she was once a parson’s daughter.

Taken from  Whin, 1918, the version here corrects some errors which crept in when it was republished in Homecoming, 2003. The Brothers Gillespie have made some slight changes for their sung version.