> Peter Bellamy > Songs > The Spotted Cow
> Steeleye Span > Songs > Spotted Cow

The Spotted Cow

[ Roud 956 ; Ballad Index K142 ; trad.]

The Spotted Cow is a song from the repertoire of Norfolk singer Harry Cox. Peter Kennedy recorded him singing this song at home in Catfield, Norfolk, in October 1953. This recording was included in 1965 on his EFDSS LP Traditional English Love Songs and in 2000 on his Rounder CD What Will Become of England?.

Peter Bellamy sang The Spotted Cow on his third solo LP, The Fox Jumps Over the Parson's Gate. He accompanied himself on Anglo concertina. A.L. Lloyd commented in the album's sleeve notes:

This innocent idyllic tone and the bits of literary hrase—“cot”, “swain” and such—suggest that this song wasn't made by a country labourer but by an educated amateur writing “in the folk manner”. And so on examination it proves to be. It was written for the London pleasure gardens, appearing on a Vauxhall Gardens song-sheet in the 1740s and again at Ranelagh Gardens in the 1760s (with the locale fashionably moved to Scotland so that it concerns a swain named Jamie on the banks of the Tweed). It reappeared as a Regency parlour ballad in Fairburne's Everlasting Songster. It dropped out of fashionable use by the mid-nineteenth century, but country-folk retained their affection for it right up to the present, and it has turned up in Devon and Somerset, in Oxfordshire and Yorkshire, and of course in Norfolk, where Peter Bellamy found it in the repertoire of Harry Cox.

Steeleye Span learned Spotted Cow from the singing of Harry Cox too and recorded it in 1972 for their third album, Below the Salt. A live recording from Perth Concert Hall in 1985 was released in 2001 on the CD Gone to Australia. Another version recorded live in 1986 was released on both the Progressive Records / Park Records CD reissue of the album Back in Line and on the CD Steeleye Span in Concert.

The Below the Salt sleeve notes set the mood with:

I first saw her through the swirling mists that rose from the Thames, her body illuminated by the gas-lamp beneath which she stood. Her imitation jewellery reflected the hissing flame and I could just discern the long slit in her skirt and the badly applied rouge on her cheeks. As I neared her she turned towards me in a practised manner. “I've lost my spotted cow,” she said in a voice coarsened by the inclement weather but still retaining the charm of a country accent. I looked at her, suddenly moved. “What brought you to this sorry state?” I asked.

Lyrics

Peter Bellamy sings The Spotted Cow	Steeleye Span's Spotted Cow
One morning in the month of May, As from my cot I strayed, Just at the dawning of the morn That's I met with a charming maid.	One morning in the month of May, As from my cot I strayed, Just at the dawning of the day I met with a charming maid.
“Good morn, fair maid, and wither d'you stray So early? Tell me now.” This maid replied, “Kind sir” she cried, “I have lost my spotted cow.”	“Good morning to you, wither?” said I, “Good morning to you now.” The maid replied, “Kind sir” she cried, “I've lost my spotted cow.”
“No longer weep and no longer mourn, For your cow is not lost, my dear, I saw her down in yonder grove, Come, love, and I'll show you where.”	“No longer weep, no longer mourn, Your cow's not lost, my dear, I saw her down in yonder grove, Come, love, and I'll show you where.”
“I must confess and you're so very kind, You're so very kind,” said she. “It's there you're sure your cow to find, Come, sweetheart, and walk with me.”	“I must confess you're very kind, I thank you, sir,” said she. “We will be sure her there to find, Come, sweetheart, go with me.”
	And in the grove they spent the day, They thought it passed to soon. At night they homeward bent their way, While brightly shone the moon.
So if I cross the farther's glen Or go to view the plough, She's sure to call her gentle swain, “I have lost my spotted cow.”	If he should cross the flowery dale Or go to view the plough, She comes and calls, “You gentle swain, I've lost my spotted cow.”

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Patrick Montague for correcting the lyrics.