"On A Mountain Stands A Lady" (Part II- A Facebook Post About A 2012 Isle Of Man Version With Multiple Comments)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest revision - May 9, 2026

This is the Part II of a four part pancocojams series about the children's singing game and skipping (jump rope) rhyme entitled "On The Mountain stands A Lady" (or similar titles).

This 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 this pancocojams post. These 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. 

The Addendum to this post provides a general list of the locations that the selected commenters gave for where they lived when they sang this rhyme.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/05/the-history-of-on-mountain-stands-lady.html  for Part I of this pancocojams series. That 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 some sources for that song dating from 18th century Britain. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/05/on-mountain-stands-lady-jump-rope-rhyme.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part A of that post showcases a YouTube video example and some text (word only) examples of "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" recreational rhymes from various online sources. 

Part B of that post showcases a YouTube video example of "There Stands A Lady On A Mountain" circle game and the lyrics for that example. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/05/examples-of-on-mountain-stands-lady.html for Part IV of this pancocojams series. That post presents additional online examples and comments about the children's singing game and skipping rope (jump rope) rhyme entitled "On The Mountain Stands A Lady" (or similar titles).from a discussion thread on Mudcat folk music forum. 

The content of this post is presented for folkloric, historical, socio-cultural, and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to Violet Corlett, the singer of this 2012 example of "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" whose recording is showcased in this Facebook post. Thanks also to culturevannin for publishing that showcased sound file of Isle of Man example of "On A Mountain Stands A Lady". Thanks also to all the commenters who shared their memories of "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" in that Facebook post's discussion thread.

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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, most if not all of the examples of "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" probably weren't composed by Black people and may have rarely been chanted by Black people, at least in the United States.

These examples of and information about "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" are showcased on pancocojams because I 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.

****
FACEBOOK POST ABOUT "ON A MOUNTAIN STANDS A LADY"
From https://www.facebook.com/culturevannin/videos/on-a-mountain-stands-a-lady/810912307976280/

Culture Vannin, October 6, 2025
"A skipping rhyme sung in Douglas in the 1930s.

This is from a wonderful recording of Violet Corlett in 2012 which has just been released online.

The c.20-minute recording is of rhymes, songs and skipping songs she remembered from her childhood, along with a large number of her own wonderful limericks.

It is, surely, one of the most joyful recordings you will hear today!

[...]

We found this amongst some old files here (along with the appropriate permission forms), and we are delighted to be able to share it online for the first time.

We do not have the contact for the family to let them know that it is available, but we hope that someone will be able to tag them here or otherwise contact them.

The image is one of Mrs Corlett's own photographs: 'Group of Cronkbourne Village children outside one of the houses in Cronkbourne Village, Braddan. Date unknown.'

[…]

Lyrics:

On the mountain stands a lady
Who she is I do not know
All she wants is silver and gold
All she wants is a nice young man
So fall in and follow me
Follow me, follow me
So fall in and follow me
[repeats song from the beginning]
-snip-
Pancocojams Editor's note:
This Facebook page includes a .23 second sound file of this skipping song.
-snip-
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Man
"The Isle of Man (Manx: Mannin [ˈmanɪnʲ], also Ellan Vannin [ˈɛlʲan ˈvanɪnʲ]), or simply Mann (/mæn/ man),[12] is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Governor. The government of the United Kingdom is responsible for the Isle of Man's military defence and represents it abroad, but the Isle of Man still has a separate international identity.[13]"
-snip-
Douglas is the capital of the Isles of Man and Cronkbourne Village is located on the Isle of Man, 

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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THREAD FOR THIS FACEBOOK POST

Pancocojams Editor's Notes:
As of May 3, 2026 there were 328 comments in the discussion thread for this 2025 facebook post. All of the comments are from October 2025.

These selected comments are numbered for referencing purposes only.  

These comments are given without explanations except for the following information:

- The Live Birds https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063924/ 
"[British] Television Series; Comedy 1969-1996

The lives and loves of Beryl Hennessey and Sandra Hutchinson, two young, single women sharing a flat in Liverpool."

**
-Frankenstein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein%27s_monster
"Frankenstein's monster, commonly referred to as Frankenstein,[a] is a fictional character that first appeared in Mary Shelley's 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus as its main antagonist. Shelley's title compares the monster's creator, Victor Frankenstein, who later became the monster's namesake, to the mythological character Prometheus, who fashioned humans out of clay and gave them fire."...

**
-Pansy Potter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pansy_Potter
"Pansy Potter is a British comic strip character from the magazine The Beano. She first appeared in -Pansy Potter the Strong Man's Daughter issue 21 in 1938, and was first illustrated by Hugh McNeill."...

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1. Eunice Hurst
"Sang this playing rope two turned the others waited in line you jumped and sang the called in a friend to join you jumping whe rhyme started again you left her to. Choose the next one to join in

**
2. Alma Lewis
"I remember singing this in the 1940s . On a Sunday afternoon , dads and mums would join the children in the middle of the road( no cars in those days) and the dads would take turns of turning the clothesline skipping rope while the mums joined the children in skipping"

**
3. Judy James
"We sang on the hilltop stands a lady etc. It was for calling someone in to skip with you. And ended up : so come in my (name) dear. I love you." 

**
4. Bryn Jones
"Sang it in Liverpool in the 1950's."

**
5. Anne Shields
"We used to play that also the tune was the theme from the liverbirds"

**
6. Elsa Nutt
"Haven’t heard that for decades in Orkney in the 1950’s and in Dundee in the early 1970’s in my first teaching job."

**
7. Maggie Worsfold
"We sang this in my primary school in Hammersmith West London in the late 50 's. We would call in girls by name until the long skipping rope was full. What a shame all the playground games we played have gone, mostly because of Health and Safety"

**
8. Polly Bryan
"This was the theme tune to the Liver Birds, a sitcom from the 60s, starring Nerys Hughes and Polly? later Elizabet Estenson. It was a well known skipping song in the 50s and 60s. We used to skip to it in York in the 60s."

**
9. Barbara Haynes
"And in the 50s London playgrounds too."

**
10. Lindsay Simmons
"Sang this in Cheshire in the 60's"

**
11. Winifred Fisher
"I sang this along with so many songs we sang as we played go back to the early 50s I am now 87 and can recall so many."

**
12. Sara Bottomley
"We skipped to this in the 1970s in Kent!"

**
13. Sybil Patterson
"I sang this while skipping in the 1940s great memories x🤣🤣🤣"

**
14. Lelly Sue Hirst
"In Liverpool the first half was the same but we used to sing 'So call in my (name) dear..... while I go out to play'. The skipper would jump out and the called person would jump out."

**
15. Ann Elizabeth Bowen
"Not just in Douglas. I remember singing this in the 1950s in Dudley, west Midlands (then Worcestershire). After 'All she wants is a nice young man' the rope speeded up and everyone shouted the names of boys. The name shouted as you caught the rope on your feet was supposed to be the one you'd end up marrying!"

**
16. Bernadette Derry
"Pauline RaffertyI wonder where it originated. It is/was the same song with very minor differences sung all over the place. A “top ten hit “ "

**
17. Myfanwy Evans
"Bernadette Derry I wonder if the “evacuation” system during the war helped spread the songs and games?"

**
18. Bernadette Derry
"Quite likely I would think. I’d never thought of that."

**
19. Diane Waugh
"'On a mountain stands a castle, and it's owner Frankenstein.

And his daughter Suzy Potter, she's my own true valentine'

Sung at school in south West Scotland, can't remember what the rest we had was"

**
20. Jessie Ronald
"Diane Waugh We used to sing on a mountain stands a castle,and the owner Frankenstein.And his daughter Pansy Potter, she's my only Valentine. So I call in ( use a friend's name who is next in line to jump in with the skipping ropes like Mary dear Mary dear so I call Mary Dear as I go out to play. You then jump out and she jumps in and takes your place."

**
21. Helen Cutler
'"We sang this in South Wales as a skipping rhyme. Different ending , but can't remember it."

**
22. Cheryl Trowbridge Sharpe
"I remember singing that while skipping. Slightly different ending - instead of follow me we sang ' so call in my (name) dear' and another girl would join you in the rope. Another one was vote, vote, vote because of (name), call in (someone else) at the you in the rope. Another one was vote, vote, vote because of (name), call in (someone else) at the door, for, (someone else) is the lady who is going to have a baby and we won't vote for (name) any more, shut the door."

**
23. Ceinwen Howells
"We sang this is South Wales back in 1950 skipping in the street with friends On a mountain stood a lady who she is I don't know, I will court her for her beauty, she will answer yes or no, Oh no Sir No Sir No, not thought of this over 70 years ago, just like yesterday happy times"

**
24. Mary Holland
"We sang it on the streets of Glasgow early 1960's"

**
25. Margaret Macdonald
""Sang this in the Scottish Borders in 40s/50s!!"

**
26. Lynda Haynes
"And in Southampton 50's and early 60s in junior school. We did it with long rope 2 people holding it. Someone had to jump in with you, do the verse and then you would jump out and that person would carry on. Just like a round."

**
27. Lorraine Pannett
"On the hill there stands a lady/Who she is I do not know/ I will court her for her beauty/ She must answer yes or no.’ This is the version I remember from the Birmingham suburbs in the 1950s"

**
28. Pearl Watson
"On the mountain stands a castle

And the owner Frankenstein

And his daughter Pansy Potter

Is my only valentine

Wonder who told me this was the words when I was wee 😂😂😂"

**
29. Myfanwy Evans
"Pearl Watson somone else sent in those words further up this thread"

**
30. Gail Sinclair
"Sang this in the playground of my Canadian school in the 50s/60s."

**
31. Patricia Meakin
"We sang this, as a skipping song..one skipping..at the end part.. 'So Call in my very best friend, my very best friend, do call I'm my very best friend..(name)..while I go out and play.(jump out of the rope)."

**
32.  Paula Meadows
"I remember this from my childhood but the ending was slightly different it was - and I will be your leader x"

**
33. Kate Michelle
"Also sung in Liverpool/Wiral at least as early as the 70s ! Theme tune to The Liver Birds series, same era 😀"

**
34. Valerie Haslett
"I’m 81….this was sung in Preston too"

**
35. Jac Kay
"Think we sang ‘on a mountain stands a castle’"

**
36. Lesley Bailey
"All she wants is a nice young beau". Young man doesn't rhyme."

**
37. Mairead Kerwin
"remembers some of our skipping rhymes but ours all had 'how many ... did she get or have or the like and we skipped very quickly to boast about how many skips we could do. 😅"

**
38.Carol Porch Matthews
"I sang that when skipping with a rope your friend would try to join you as you skipped not all could do it l lived in Cardiff"

**
39. Collette O'Hanlon
"We sang similar to this in Belfast, Ireland, same tune 🎶" 

**
40.  Anne Quigley
"Early 1960, County Wexford, Ireland"

**
41. Lynn James
"And the 70s, we were still singing it"

**
42.  Jenni B-l
"We sang this in Hampshire in the 1980s"

**
41. Christine O'Toole Jackson
"Manchester,

Ends ‘Oh, no John, no John, no John no…’"

**
42. Kate Butterworth
"Yes - it's a Manxified version of the old English folk song "Oh, no John" (the first line of which is "On yonder hill there stands a creature/maiden...")"

**
43. Susan Mileson
"🎼 This is So Lovely, and Was Also a Popular Ditty in Newcastle Upon Tyne, Sang by Legions of Geordie Kids from around the 50's, Wonderful History! 👏"

**
44. Lynne Karran
"Good memories, skipped to this in Chemainus, B.C."

**
45. Kathy Taylor
"We sang this at Onchan Primary in the late 60’s early 70’s. The melody is the same as the theme tune to the “Liver Birds” TV series.

https://youtu.be/5VFYuOJJdjE?si=yscrGgomgjSX4rtq "

**
46. Anne K Kennedy Truscott
"A version of this skipping rhyme was sung in Newcastlewest in Co.Limerick in the 1950’s when I was a child. “There is a lady from the mountain. Who is she I cannot tell. All she wants is gold and silver and a nice young man as well. So hop in and follow me, etc., etc.”

❤️❤️☘️"

**
47. Judith Sharrock
"Sung in Liverpool"

**
48. Margaret Gahan
"Judith Sharrock

So call in my very best friend, very best friend, very best friend,

So call in my very best friend while I go out to play.

So you would exit from skipping and next kid jumps in

Liverpool late 50’s early 60’s🥰"

**
49. Carol Coils
"We sang this while skipping in 1970 Durham xxx"

**
50. Barbara Craig
"We played this in Glasgow in the 1960,s Instead of “Fall in and follow me…. “ we sang. “So I call in Maggie dear,( or whoever’s name you chose from the ring.)"

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ADDENDUM- LOCATIONS THAT WERE GIVEN FOR THIS RHYME/SONG IN THIS COMPILATION OF 2025 FACEBOOK COMMENTS
Commenters indicated that they remember "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" (or other similar titles) from their childhood in these locations:
(given in no particular order)
-Isle of Man
-England
-Ireland
-Scotland
-Wales
-Canada
-snip-
Please add any nation that is given in this compilation that I failed to include in this list. Thanks!
 
I'm curious if anyone from the United States remembers singing "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" while jumping rope or otherwise. (I don't remember it and I haven't found any examples of it in my direct collection during the late 1980s -2009 among Black girls in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, since I started "research" for this pancocojams series, I have found some examples online that may be from the USA. Those examples are part of the third post of this pancocojams series.)

Please share if you remember "On A Mountain Stands A Lady". Remember to include where (what location) and when (year or date). Information about whether this was a skipping (jump rope rhyme) or another type of children's recreational rhyme or singing game will be helpful for the folkloric record. Thanks in advance!    

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This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.

The History of "On The Mountain Stands A Lady" Children's Singing Game And Recreational Rhyme (Excerpt From bluegrassmessengers.com)

Edited by Azizi Powell

Latest Revision- May 9, 2026

This is the Part I of a four part pancocojams series about the children's singing game and skipping (jump rope) rhyme entitled "On The Mountain stands A Lady" (or 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. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/05/on-mountain-stands-lady-jump-rope-rhyme.html for Part III of this pancocojams series. Part A of that post showcases a YouTube video example and some text (word only) examples of "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" recreational rhymes from various online sources. 

Part B of that post showcases a YouTube video example of "There Stands A Lady On A Mountain" circle game and the lyrics for that example. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2026/05/examples-of-on-mountain-stands-lady.html for Part IV of this pancocojams series. That post presents additional online examples and comments about the children's singing game and skipping rope (jump rope) rhyme entitled "On The Mountain Stands A Lady" (or similar titles).from a discussion thread on Mudcat folk music forum. 

 
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.

****
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, most if not all of the examples of "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" probably weren't composed by Black people and may have rarely been chanted by Black people, at least in the United States.

These examples of and information about "On A Mountain Stands A Lady" are showcased on pancocojams because I 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:

"There Stands a Lady" Circle Game

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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