I Met a Maid all in White I Met a Maid all in White I met a maid all in white, I kep her out all night, Down by the castle where she followed me. As sung by Danny Brazil, The Pelican, Gloucester 5 January 1966 (Springthyme 66.1.24). In: Shepheard, Peter. Folk Songs and Ballads of the Brazil Family of Gloucester (1967). I met a maid all in white, I kep her out all night, Down by the castle where she followed me. I met a maid all in blue, All in blue, all in blue, I met a maid all in blue, All in blue was she; I met a maid all in blue, I swep her Foggy Blew, [**] Down by the castle where she followed me. I met a maid all in black, All in black, all in black, I met a maid all in black, All in black was she; I met a maid all in black, I layed her on her back, Down by the castle where she followed me. I met a maid all in pink, All in pink, all in pink, I met a maid all in pink, All in pink was she; I met a maid all in pink, I played her tiddly wink, Down by the castle where she followed me. I met a maid all in red, All in red, all in red, I met a maid all in red, All in red was she; I met a maid all in red, I layed her on the bed, Down by the castle where she followed me. Danny indicated that other verses could be made up: I met a maid all in green, Prettiest girl you’ve ever seen. I met a maid all in yellow, She was with another fellow. ** Foggy Blew: perhaps the same symbolism as Foggy Dew. Danny Brazil clearly understood this to have sexual symbolism - as is clear, in any case, from the rest of the text. It has been argued that, in the popular song The Foggy Dew, the term would not originally have had sexual symbolism but that Foggy Dew was a corruption of bugaboo or bogulmaroo as in the earliest printed copy of the song. This, of course, would only be true if the printed broadsheet of the Fright'ned York-shire Damosel in the Pepys Ballads collection (dated 1689) was indeed the original of the song. The varous regional words bugaboo, bogie, bogle, boggart are all related and refer to a fearsome goblin - see the Scots dictionary entry for bogle. [ BACK ] [ HOME ][ TOP ]