Flash Companie (The Yellow Handkerchief)
(Kennedy, Folksongs of Britain and Ireland

For once I loved a young girl as I loved my life
And I thought in my heart I would make her my wife.
With her white cotton stockings, and her high ankle shoes
And she wears a yellow handkerchief wherever she goes.

cho:

So take this yellow handkerchief in remembrance of me
And tie it round your neck, my love, in flash companie.
Flash companie, my boys, like a good many more
If it hadn't a been for flash companie I should never a been
so poor.

For with fiddling and dancing 'twas all my delight
In keeping such company it ruined me quite.
It has ruined me quite, my boys, like a great many more
If it hadn't a been for flash companie I should never a been
so poor.

cho:

For once I had a color as red as the rose
But now I'm as pale as the lily that grows.
Like a flower in the garden all my color has gone
So you see what I'm coming to from loving that one.


(Note: Supplementary verses reported by Kennedy)
First I loved Thomas and then I loved John
And then I loved William, he's a clever young man
With his white cotton stockings and his low ankle shoes
And he wears a blue jacket wherever he goes.

The rocks shall run to water and the sea shall run dry
If ever I prove false, my love, to the girl that loves I
In the middle of the ocean there shall grow a myrtle tree
If ever I prove false, my love, to the girl that loves me.

Come all you pretty flash girls take warning by me
And never build your nest in the top of any tree
For the leaves they will wither and the roots they will decay
And the beauty of a young girl will soon fade away.

Recorded by Holdstock & McLeod; by June Tabor on A Cut Above
RG