Gladys Aylward - also a major folklorist

Hey there.

Some of your you may be forgiven for thinking that Gladys was simply a boozy old biddy who got into Christianity.

Ok she travelled with the missions in China and outer mongolia, going as far as Ulan Bator.

Yes she was from a basic family and there were plenty of them, bless them all.

She liked helping people and our Gladys also had a mildly mischievious sense of humour.

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She was also a folklorist and was on a par with the obviously better known men in the field.

Better known because they have time and energy and sometimes hard currency that they could put into blowing their own trumpet as well as feathering their own nest.

I am talking about Sydney Goodsir Smith,

Sabine Baring Gould,Allan Ramsay (Edinburgh poet and publisher) and of course Sir 

Cecil Sharp whose folk music museum is in London.

    I shall write more when I get my specs - at the mo I am partially sighted as I have no 'bins'

So here is a simple example from a well known ditty

Have you seen the muffin man, the muffin man the muffin man

Have you seen the muffin man who lives along our Lane

Gladys worked out that the song had more than one layer. She also worked out the historical derivation (well I have done that too)

Muffins - we all enjoy eating them

The song is also a bit 'rude'

Who or what was going into the muffs? It is a man.

How if came about was that rich people wore Ruffs. Ruffs were a frilly collar often very starched.

They were sort of 'posey' and show off.

Any one who had a few bob in their pocket could buy one and be a 'swell' a 'toff' a posh geezer etc.

Poorer people were  sometimetimes a bit more rough. Not always.

So 'we' had our Muffs.

Trust me, it all connects...