Lass of Richmond Hill

"The Lass of Richmond Hill", also known as "The Sweet Lass of Richmond Hill", is a song written by Leonard McNally with music composed by James Hook, and was first publicly performed in 1789. It was said to be a favourite of George III and, at one time, was thought to have been written by his son, George IV. It is a love ballad which popularized the poetic phrase "a rose without a thorn" as a romantic metaphor. Associated with the English town of Richmond in North Yorkshire, it is now often mistakenly considered to be a traditional or folk song, and has even been assigned the number 1246 on the Roud Folk Song Index. The music is also used as a military march by the British army.

The words were written by Leonard McNally (1752 – 1820), who was a Dublin barrister, playwright, a leader of the United Irishmen (a clandestine republican Irish revolutionary society), but also a double agent for the British Government. McNally would betray his United Irishmen colleagues to the authorities and then, as defence counsel at their trial, secretly collaborate with the prosecution to secure a conviction. He wrote a number of songs and operettas, including for Covent Garden.

The "lass" referred to is Frances I’Anson, who Leonard McNally married in 1787. Her family owned a property in Richmond, Yorkshire called "Hill House", hence she was the "lass of Richmond Hill". (Lass is a Scottish or Northern English dialect word for "girl" or "young woman", derived from Old Norse.) Frances's father disapproved of McNally and the couple had to elope in order to marry. She died in childbirth five years after getting married; she was 29.

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