The Dorsetshire garland, or The miser outwitted: showing how a rich gentleman of Dorsetshire, who had but one child, a daughter, about 14 years old, when he died, left her to the care of his brother, a rich miser; how the miser contrived to murder his neice for the sake of her money, but was disappointed of his wicked purpose; and how he was forced to part with all his gold to save his life

A miser who has already swindled his farmer-cousin is appointed executor of his brother’s will and guardian of his brother’s fourteen-year-old daughter. If she dies unmarried the miser will inherit her estate. He ties her in a sack but she escapes and watches him while he throws the wood-filled sack into the ocean. She hurries to her cousin, who promises to help. The cousin tells the miser that he has seen the girl’s ghost, and that she told him she was murdered by drowning. The miser confesses and gives all his assets to the cousin to save his own life.

In subject, style, and presentation, this broadside looks like an English broadside ballad. It is a lengthy narrative, and the narrator at one point intrudes in the story to say

We’ll leave the poor farmer to mourn his sad fate,
And turn to the miser, . . . .

There is no moral at the end.

The reference in the middle of the second column that the miser had sent the girl to Paris “to learn the French tongue” suggests that the ballad may be of mid-eighteenth-century origin. There are several quite different texts with this title, both “Dorsetshire Garland” and “Miser Outwitted.” Identification of concordances requires a close reading of the full text. “The Dorsetshire Garland; or, The Beggar’s Wedding” in particular has been confused with this song.