56. FURZE BLOOM. The melody from Roger Luxton to the words of the ballad, "Gosport Beach," which could not possibly be inserted here. I have accordingly written fresh words to it, embodying the folk-saying in Devon and Cornwall-- "When the Furze is out of bloom, Then Love is out of tune." 57. THE OXEN PLOUGHING. This song was known throughout Devon and Cornwall at the beginning of the 19th century. It went out of use along with the oxen at the plough. We found every old singer had heard it in his boyhood, but none could recall more than snatches of the tune and some of the words. We were for three years on its traces, always disappointed. Then we heard that there was an old man at Liskeard who could sing the song through. Mr. Sheppard and I hastened thither, to find that he had been speechless for three days, and that his death was hourly expected. One day I found an old white-headed and white-bearded man cutting ferns in the hedges at Trebartha in Cornwall. His name was Adam Landry. We got into conversation. I had heard he was a singer, and I asked after this especial song. He knew it. I sat down among the cut fern and learned it from him, singing it over and over till I had it by heart, and then drove home eighteen miles, warbling it the whole way, and went to my piano and fixed it. Later we found a labouring man, Joseph Dyer, at Mawgan-in-Pyder, who could sing the song through. Mr. Sharp has also taken this down note for note in North Devon from an old farmer, Mr. Lake of Worlington, who remembered the use of oxen ploughing. A very similar folk-song is found in France, with its refrain, naming the oxen-- "Aronda, Vironda, Charbonné, Maréchaô, Motet et Roget, Mortaigne et Chollet, Ho! ho! ho! ho! ho! mon mignon, He! he! he! he! he! he! mon valet." See George Sand's account of the song in "Le mare au diable," c. 2; Tiersot, _op. cit._, p. 157. 58. FLORA, THE LILY OF THE WEST. Two melodies have been noted down to this ballad, one from Matthew Baker, the old cripple on Lew Down, the other from Samuel Fone. The first is identical with one obtained in Yorkshire by Mr. Kidson. The words are on Broadsheets by Such, Fortey, Barr of Leeds, etc. In the original the lover betrayed by Flora stabs to the heart the "lord of high degree" who has supplanted him-- "I walked up to my rival with a dagger in my hand, And seized him from my false love, and bid him boldly stand; Then, mad with desperation, I swore I'd pierce his breast, And I was betrayed by Flora, the Lily of the West." He is tried for murder, but "a flaw was in the indictment found," and he escapes the gallows. And the ballad winds up-- "Although she swore my life away, she still disturbs my rest, I must ramble for my Flora, the Lily of the West." I have thought it well to cut out the murder and the trial.