Edited by Azizi Powell
This is the first in a series of pancocojams posts about the children's singing game and recreational rhyme entitled "On The Mountain stands A Lady" (and similar titles).
This post presents an excerpt about this singing game and rhyme from two bluegrassmessanger.com website. The second website indicates that the earliest documented example of "On The Mountain stands A Lady" is from 1846 with other elements from the 18th century.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/05/on-mountain-stands-lady-part-ii.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents a 2025 Facebook post about a 2012 Isle of Man sound file by Violet Corlett of "On The Mountain Stands A Lady". Some comments from that post's discussion thread are also included in that pancocojams post. Those comments include memories of that skipping rhyme mostly from the 1940s - 1970s with one commenter sharing her memory of singing this rhyme while skipping rope in the 1980s.
Links to subsequent pancocojams posts about "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" will be added in this post.
The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.
All copyights remain with their owners.
Thanks to bluegrassmessanger.com for their research and writing about this singing game and rhyme.
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PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
This post departs from this pancocojams blog's mission of showcasing the music, dances, language practices, & customs of African Americans and of other people of Black descent throughout the world.
While some singing games and recreational rhymes that are showcased on pancocojams have been documented to come from Black Americans or from other Black people, all of the examples from those folk genres-such as "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" did not come from those populations.
These examples of and information about "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" are showcased on pancocojams because I'm interested in and like these genres of folk culture. Also, I like learning about the history of songs and rhymes and discovering how some elements of old songs and rhymes are retained in "new" songs and rhymes.
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EXCERPT ABOUT "ON A MOUNTAIN STANDS A LADY"
From http://bluegrassmessengers.com/british-versions-8c-on-a-mountain-stands-a-lady.aspx British & other versions: 8C. On a Mountain Stands a
Lady
[Pancocojams Editor's Note: This page includes a sketch of girls holding hands moving around a circle counterclockwise with a girl in the center kneeling on the ground with her hands covering her face.]
"British and Other Versions: 8C. On a Mountain Stands a Lady Roud 2603; "There Stands a Lady" (Sharp); "There Stands a Lady on the Mountain;" "Yonder Stands a Lovely Lady;" "There She Stands a Lovely Creature;" "Lady on the Mountain"(Opie); "Lady on Yonder Hill;"
[The fundamental stanza of children's game songs used in 8C. On a Mountain Stands a Lady (Roud 2603) is derived from the text of two stanzas of 8. Madam, I Have Come To Court You. This opening stanza appears in a variety of ways but usually:
There stands a lady on the mountain,
Who she is I do
not know:
Oh! she wants such
gold and silver!
Oh! she wants such
a nice young man! [Gomme A, 1894]
The modern versions[1] often reverse first line of the text:
On a mountain
stands a lady,
Who she is I do
not know;
All she wants is
gold and silver,
All she wants is
a nice young man[2]. [South London 1974]
The image of a lady on a "mountain" or
"hillside" makes the stanza easily identified. The source of
"mountain" is unknown and only one reference is given to it in the
related "Madam" songs (see: The Dumb Lady-- 1672). It's derived from
the first two lines of the opening stanza of "Madam[3]":
Yonder sits[stands] a lovely creature,
Who is she? I do not know,
I'll go court her for her features,
Whether her answer be "Ay" or "no."
The two lines are
combined with a two-line variation of the last "gold and silver"
stanza of "Madam" (the woman's response)[4]:
What care I for gold and silver,
What care I for house and land
What care I for rings and jewels,
If I had but a handsome man."
In this stanza the 1st and 4th lines make up the last two
lines of the opening of the children's game song while a "handsome
man" becomes a "nice young man" and the young lady once who
eschewed "gold and silver" for a "handsome man" now wants
"gold and silver." When these changes took place is unknown but since
versions were collected in the 1880s the change likely took place by the
mid-1800s.
The standard text of Madam was sung by children in 1846 as a nursery rhyme, my A. It was collected by Halliwell and does not have the standard game-song form found in C-G. The text of 8C's A and B are remnants of Madam with B versions having ring-game instructions. The logical conclusion would be that the nursery rhymes and ring games of A and B, predate C-G which were adapted from them. This evolution has not been verified and only two hybrid first stanzas[5] have been found (one from Australia) which have the "On the Mountain" opening with the "Madam" closing line "whether she answers Yes or No."
C is represented by children's game songs with the standard
"Here stands a lady on the mountain" opening. One early version of C
was collected in Berrington by Charlotte Burne and published in Shropshire
Folk-Lore II ( p. 509) in 1885. Burne calls it "another version of Sally
Water(Walters)" since the other parts are similar to or taken from Sally
Water. She also says, "See the ballad of the Disdainful Lady," a
version of Madam published in the same edition. In the notes for
"Disdainful Lady" she says, "the first stanza slightly resembles
a game-rhyme given ante (p. 509), and one in Folio Lore Journal, Vol. I. p.
387." Here's Burne's version:
Chorus. 'Here stands a lady on a mountain,
Who she is I do not know;
AU as she wants is gold and silver,
All as she wants is a nice young man.
Choose you east, and choose you west.
Choose you the one as you love best.
(She chooses, and chorus continues,)
Now Sally's got married we wish her good joy,
First a girl and then a boy;
Twelve months a'ter a son and da'ter,
Pray young couple, kiss together.
The text of stanzas of C not found in versions of
"Madam" are taken from other children's songs current at the time of
collection. Burne mentions "Sally Water." Some other children's
songs/games with a lines similar to "Choose you east" and the
"kissing stanza" are "King William," "Here Stands a
Young Man," "Tug of War" and the aforementioned "Sally
Water." Cf. the version in Gillington's "Old Hampshire Singing Games."
Two versions of D, children's songs where children reenact
roles similar to those of the early wooing plays, were published by Gomme in 1894. Titled
"Lady on Yonder Hill" they feature the character of the wooed lady
who feigns death and is resurrected. In
the folk plays Alan Brody points out that the "combat leads to the death
and resurrection of one of the figures, after which the wooing resumes."
The death of one of the wooers is found in both "Lady on Yonder Hill"
and some of the "Quack Doctor" folk plays. The first version, Da, was
taken by Gomme from an article, Children's Games, collected from Suffolk
children by Miss Nina Layard of Ipswich and published in Suffolk Folk-lore,
Issue 37, Part 2 as edited by Lady Eveline Camilla Gurdon, 1893. Gurdon gives the game instructions along with
the sung text:
[…]
The inclusion of elements of the wooing plays suggests the
possibility that the "There stands a Lady" stanza evolved from a
wooing play in the early to mid-1800s. However, no wooing play has been
collected which gives the "There stands a Lady" opening. The two
"gold and silver" stanzas found similarly in Madam were collected in
wooing plays of the 1900s but were surely present in the 1800s[6]. The argument
that text of the children's songs resembles text of the wooing plays is tenuous
at best.
In 1906 Cecil J. Sharp collected a version of E from John
Barnett of Bridgwater, Somerset. This ring game variant (designated Ea)
combines "Lady on a mountain" with a chorus, "Madam will you
walk" associated with another courting song, "Keys of Heaven (Keys of
Canterbury)[7]":
Madam will you walk
Madam will you talk
Madam will you walk and talk with me.
In 1909 Gillington published a version of E, "There
Stands a Lady" (Keys of Heaven)," in her "Old Surrey Singing
Games and Skipping Rope Rhymes." The most popular version of "There
Stands a Lady (Keys of Heaven)" was
collected from girls at Littleport Town Girls' School by Cecil Sharp on 8
September, 1911 at Littleport, Cambridgeshire. Sharp's elaborate version was
widely reprinted and seems to be the source for a number of reprints including
"There Stands a Lady." published by Norman Douglas in "London Street
Games" (1st edition, 1916) pp. 85-87 and the popular "There Stands a
Lady" from the TV sitcom series "Liver Birds" set in Liverpool
that aired from 1969 to 1979. Here is
the text of the 1912 version (slightly expanded from the MS) which was
published by Sharp and Gomme for Novello and Company:
All the players join hands in a ring except one, A, who
stands in the centre. They then sing and act as follows:—
The players dance round in the ring and sing these lines. A says “No” very decidedly. The
players then stand still and sing the last two lines. A again says " No.”
1 There I stands a lady on the mountain,
Who she is I do not know;
All she wants is gold and silver.
All she wants is a nice young man.
Madam will you walk? Madam will you talk?
Madam will you marry
me? No!
Not if I buy you a nice arm chair
To sit in your garden when you take the air? No!
2 There I stands a lady on the mountain.
Who she is I do not
know;
All she wants is gold
and silver,
All she wants is a nice young man.
Madam will you walk?
Madam will you talk?
Madam will you marry me? No
Not if I buy you a silver spoon
To I feed your baby every afternoon? No
3 There stands a lady on the mountain,
Who she is I do not know;
All she wants is gold and silver.
All she wants is a nice young man.
[As in first stanza, except that on the second interrogation
A says “Yes.” A then chooses a partner
from the ring, B.]
Madam will you walk? Madam will you talk?
Madam will you marry me! No!
Not if I buy you a nice straw hat,
With three yards of ribbon a-hanging down your back? Yes
[A and B, arm in arm, walk out from the ring under the
raised arms of two of the players. B puts a ring on A’s finger,]
4 Go to church, love,
Go to church, love, farewell.
5 Put the ring on,
Put the ring on, farewell.
6 Say your prayers, love, [A and B kneel down]
Say your prayers, love, farewell.
7 Back from church, love, [A and B, arm in arm, walk back
into the centre of the ring,]
Back from church, love, fare-well.
8 What’s for breakfast, love, [Sung by A and B.]
What’s for breakfast, love, fare-well'?
9 Bread and butter and watercress, [Sung by the ring]
Bread and butter and watercress,
Bread and butter and watercress,
And you shall have some.
[Verses continues to #13.]
After a cover version was featured on the TV sitcom series
"Liver Birds" in the early 1970s, the song was revived. In a rootsweb
London archive post Joanna Coventry said:
At the beginning of the 1970s only a few lines of this
game-song seem to have been remembered; but in 1975-6 versions such as the
above were collected in quick succession from 9 year olds in Salford, from an 8
year old at Wool in Dorset and from 10 year olds in Oxford…. The words are virtually those of the game, "There stands a lady," published by Cecil Sharp in 1912 and
most of the children had learnt the song from a young man
with a guitar on the TV schools programme “Music Time” . . This extended version belongs
to the period 1920-25; but the first four lines have been continuously popular
in the skipping rope, as well as forming the basis of a simple ring game first
noted in 1913.
* * * *
By the mid-1900s the short ring game songs had become popular skipping songs also called, "jump-rope songs," with a new variation of the first line (also is the title)-- "On the Mountain Stands a Lady." These songs, my F, were popular throughout the UK and in the US and Canada as well. The standard rope jumping version begins:
On the mountain stands a lady,
Who she is I do not know,
All she wants is gold and silver,
All she wants is a nice young man. [Lucy Stewart
Aberdeenshire, 1960] [8]
After this a new child is asked to come in (called by name)
to jump rope and one of the participating jumpers is asked to leave (called to
leave).
Come in my dear [name],
Go out my dear [name].
The invitation ("come in" or "calling
in") of another player who replaces the old player in the center of the
ring or rope is the most common version known in the last fifty years and many
children from the 1950s up to today have learned this basic version. That these
later game songs were widely popular in the UK was corroborated by a tabulation
by the Opies[9] in 1997 who noted the "On the Mountain" game song
"from sixty-five places since 1950."
Additional stanzas have been added to the skipping texts of
F. My G has extra stanzas similar to the additional stanzas of C found in other
children's game (Sally Water/Walker) of the late 1800s. In this version[10]
from South London in 1974 these additional lines are added:
So go to your__, dear,
And make it Mrs___
How many kisses did he give you?
One, two, three. . .
Will you marry him?
Yes, no, yes. . .
How many babies will you have?
One, two, three. . .
Do you love him?
Yes, no, yes. . .
The way the additional lines of the game were enacted were
described by schoolgirls from Huish Episcopi, Somerset in a recording[11]: A
girl is skipping in the middle while the girls sing "Will you marry
him?" When they sing "Yes, no yes, no. . ." the rope stops
swinging and if they were singing "yes" when it stopped-- that is the
answer for the girl in the middle-- "Yes" she will marry him. The
other questions are answered similarly.
* * * *
Ian Turner collected a number of versions in Australia (see: Cinderella Dressed in Yella, New York, 1972). Here's one reprinted in The Bulletin of Sydney (December, 1998) that has the second verse in the third person:
Here stands a lovely creature,
Who she is I do not know.
Will she answer for her beauty,
Will she answer Yes or No.
No, she won't have gold and silver
No, she won't have house or land
No, she won't have ships on the ocean.
All she wants is a nice young man.
This version and another collected in 1952 in England by the
Opies have the familiar "Madam" first stanza which is the older form
of the children's song.
* * * *
The appearance of these children's songs based on text of "Madam" can only be traced to the 1870s with the "There stands a Lady on the Mountain" stanza dating to the early 1880s. Whether the new "There stands a Lady on the Mountain" stanza is derived from the wooing folk plays is unknown, but at least two versions suggest the possibility[12]. The children's songs can't be traced to the mid-1700s broadsides of "Madam" and have an assumed origination date no earlier than the mid-1800s. The earliest appearance of the more modern "On a Mountain Stands a Lady" first line is 1914 where it appears without attribution in John Hornby's "The Joyous Book of Singing Games," published in New York. The "On a Mountain Stands a Lady" versions associated with skipping rope are products of the early 1900s which became popular by the mid-1900s.
In this cursory study no attempt has been made to secure
every available version and a number of known versions, available in books
which I do not have access, are not given.
Footnotes:
1. Although hardly "modern" in the strict sense, these versions appeared in Britain in after World War II. The first published version was Horby's in 1914 by a NY publisher.
2. This is the standard modern stanza found in the 1950s and
on skipping games. One variation is "On the hillside."
3. This is from earliest extant version of
"Madam," titled "The Lovely Creature" ("Yonder sits a
Lovely Creature") which was printed at Aldermary Churchyard by one of the
Dicey/Marshall dynasty and is dated about 1760.
4. The early print versions (c. 1760s) have "gold and
treasure" but many subsequent versions have "gold and silver."
The plough plays also have "gold and silver."
5. See Opie 1952 and Turner 1976.
6. See, for example, the version from Kentucky dated 1930
but recreated from informants who learned it in the late 1800s.
7. Although some admixture is found in "Madam" and
Keys," there are clearly different ballads and should not be lumped.
8. This is standard with slight variation throughout the UK,
Canada, US and Australia.
9. See:
"Children's games with things: marbles, fivestones, throwing and
Catching, Gambling, Hopscotch, Chucking and Pitching, Ball-Bouncing, Skipping,
Tops and Tipcat" by Iona Archibald Opie, Peter Opie - 1997.
10. See: The Lore of the Playground: One hundred years of
children's games, by Steve Roud - 2010.
11. From: Opie
collection of children's games & songs C898-76-02. The children perform the
singing game 'On a Hillside Stands a Lady' (a variation of 'On a Mountain
Stands a Lady') [00:00:58 - 00:01:59] http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Opie-collection-of-children-s-games-and-songs-/021M-C0898X0077XX-0100V0”…
12. Two hybrid versions are the 1952 "folk"
version collected by the Opies and a version collected by Ian Turner from The
Bulletin of Sydney (12.3.98)."...
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's Note
This page includes a lengthy list of individual versions that can be accessed on
that website.
The earliest example listed is http://bluegrassmessengers.com/1madam-i-am-come-to-court-you--lon-halliwell-1846.aspx
"Earliest source: Madam, I Am Come to Court You- (Lon)
Halliwell 1846
Madam I Am Come to Court You- (Lon) Halliwell 1846
[From Halliwell's 1846 book, "The Nursery Rhymes of
England, obtained principally from oral tradition.]"
-R. Matteson 2017
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