“Melancholy Accident, A -- The Death of M. Hodge”

Description

"Far distant friends will drop a tear When of this accident they hear." A group of girls visits Betsy Green's school. With bad weather coming, parents gather six girls -- but the horses fall on a slope; Mira is killed instantly; Eliza succumbs weeks later

Supplemental text

Melancholy Accident, A -- The Death of M. Hodge
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

From Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner and Geraldine Jencks Chickering,
Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan, pp. 309-310. "From the Gernsey
manuscript."

Far distant friends will drop a tear
When of this accident they hear.
The mournful story will impart
Affliction to the very heard.
Remember, O this was the day,
The twenty-second of July;
I with ambitious girls sixteen
Visited the school of Betsy Green.

(6 additional stanzas)

Notes

This looks very historical, but it's not really specific enough (or clear enough; it's poor poetry) to allow much hope of dating it. - RBW

References

1. Gardner/Chickering 126, "A Melancholy Accident -- The Death of M. Hodge" (1 text)
2. ST GC126 (Partial)
3. Roud #3701
4. BI, GC126