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The Swiss Boy, Tune from Thomas Hampton's Manuscript

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Source: Thomas Hampton's manuscript
Performer: Hampton, Thomas
Place Collected: Hereford
Date collected: c1870-1880

Thomas Hampton was born at Blaisdon in Gloucestershire (baptised March 1844), and probably worked on the canals for a while. By 1870 he was living in Hereford, being married there that year. He died in 1896, still resident at Bath St. Hereford. He left a manuscript containing tunes, which is now in the possession of his great-great granddaughter, Becky Dellow, who is researching both TH and the tunes. Although the manuscript was compiled in Hereford, Becky believes some of the tunes were remembered from TH’s childhood in Gloucestershire.

The Swiss Boy appears to be written in an incomplete form, as an aide mémoire. As Becky Dellow has pointed out, it is loosely derived from Der Schweizer Bue in Ignac Moscheles’ The Tyrolese Melodies, Vol 1 (of 3) London: Willis & Co., 1827, as sung by the Rainer Family from the Zillertal. The Merry Swiss Boy in the Greet Manuscript is close to the original.
note by Charles Menteith

In the linked abc file this is tune number X:37