[The Tying of the Garter]

	Like "The Bonny Brown Hair," this too is a clever rather than obscene ballad, neatly tied up in euphemisms.  And this too, sadly, seems to have fallen from oral tradition in the United States.

As I was going to Salisbury 
Upon a market day
Why, there I met a pretty fair maid
And she was going my way.
	And she was going my way, sir,
	With butter and eggs to sell,
	And we jogged along together,
	With a titty-for-aw-for-ell.

And as we jogged along, sir, 
Side by side,
By some strange change it happened, sir,
That her garter came untied.
	Her garter came untied, sir,
	A hand's breadth e'er the knee.
	And we jogged along together,
	With a titty-for-aw-for-ee.

"And would you be so very good,
And would you be so free,
And would you be so very good
As to do it up for me?"
	"Why yes, fair main, and that I will
	When we get to yonder hill."
	And we jogged along together,
	With a titty-for-aw-for-ill.

When yonder hill was reached, sir,
The grass it was so green
That the tying up of that garter, sir,
Was the prettiest sight e'er seen
	For she spread wide her lily-white thighs,
	And I slipped in between
	And we jogged along together,
	With a titty-for-aw-for-een.

"And now I must be going, sir,
My butter and eggs are sold
And I have lost my maidenhead
Which makes my heart run cold.
	For I have lost my maidenhead
	To a man that I abhore,
	And he's a dirty son of a bitch
	And I'm a bloody whore.

	Under the title of "As I Was Going to Salisbury," this typescript was labelled: "Lark Hill, Salisbury Plains, Nov. 1914."  (Apparently Gordon's unidentified informant learned the ballad while in Great Britain.)  It is now Number 3918 in the Gordon "Inferno" collection at the Library of Congress' Archive of American Folk Culture.