All Jolly Fellows that follow the Plough

That was early one morn at the break of the day
The cockerels were crowing the farmer did say
Come rise my good fellows come rise with good will
Be your horses want something their bellies to fill.

For when four o'clock comes then up we arise
And down to the stables so merrily flies
With rubbing and scrubbing our horses I vow
We're all jolly fellows that follows the plough.

When six o'clock comes at breakfast we meet
With bread, beef and pork boys, we heartily will eat
With a piece in our pocket, I‘ll swear and I vow
We're all jolly fellows that follows the plough.

And we harness our horses and away we do go
Tripping over the plain boys as nimbly as dough
And when we get there so jolly and bold
To see which of us a straight furrow can hold.

Our master came to us and this he did say
What have you been doing, this long summer’s day?
You've not ploughed an acre I’ll swear and I vow
You're all idle fellows that follow the plough.

Well I stepped up to him and made this reply
We've all ploughed an acre so you've told a dammed lie
We've all ploughed an acre, and I’ll swear and I vow
We're all jolly fellows that follow the plough.

He turned himself round and he laughed at his joke
It’s gone two o'clock boys, its time to unyoke
Unharness your horses and rub them down well
For you're all jolly fellows that follows the plough.

So all you young fellows where ever you be
Take my advice and be ruled by me
Never fear your own master and then he will vow
That you're all jolly fellows that follows the plough.

Song transcribed by Will Duke & Brian Wood

        At village dances there were favourite dances that would need to be played if the crowd were to go home satisfied. These would include couple dances such as the ‘Heel and Toe Polka’, ‘The Barn Dance’ or a Schottische. Here we have a fine country schottische typical of those played all over the country.

Tune notes: John Howson

Jan's Courtship

Come listen son Jan, now thou art a man
I'll give thee best council in life
Come sit down by me, and my story shall be
I'll tell how to get thee a wife
Yes I will, man I will, sure I will
And I'll tell how to get thee a wife

By self thee must dress in thy Sunday go best
They'll at first turn away and be shy
But boldly thou kiss each pretty maid that thou see'st
And they'll call thee their love bye and bye
Yes they will, man they will, sure they will
And they'll call thee their love bye and bye

Now a courting Jan goes, in his Sunday best clothes
All primmed up in tattered nor torn
From his top to his toe, with a bright yellow rose
He looked like a gentleman born
Yes he did, man he did, sure he did
And he looked like a gentleman born

Now the first pretty lass that Jan did see pass
Was a farmer's fat daughter called Grace
Now he'd scarce said "How do" and a kind word or two
When her fetched him a slap in the face
Yes her did, man her did, sure her did
And her fetched him a slap in the face.

Now Jan never caring no nothing at all
Was a walking one day by the locks
He kissed the parson's wife, which caused such strife
And Jan was put into the stocks
Yes he was, man he was, sure he was
And Jan was put into the stocks

Now he said if this be the way, to get me a wife
Quoth Jan then Ill never have none
I'd sooner stop single, the whole of my life
And home to me mummy I'll run
Yes I will, man I will, sure I will
And back to my mummy I'll run.

        Originally a 17th century song titled ‘Come Hither My Dutiful Son, and Take Counsel of Me’, which John Gay alludes to in his Beggar’s Opera of 1728 (Act III, Scene VIII). By the 1820’s it had become known as ‘Poor Bob’ and, as such, was included in The Universal Songster, a three volume collection of folk and popular songs. This is one of the songs that Archer learnt from Sam Bennett. It seems to have been influenced by the word set published by the Reverend Sabine Baring Gould in his Songs of the West (revised edition, 1905).

Song notes: Mike Yates

Song notes: Mike Yates

        A song from the Victorian Music Halls. Referring to a Scottish version, Sheila Douglas had this to say about the song. ‘...there has never been anything wrong with a good belly laugh now and then. It’s the kind of comic song to be sung straight-faced or with an expression of outraged innocence when the audience laughs.’ (Sheila Douglas Come Gie’s a Sang, Edinburgh, 1995) The Norfolk singer Walter Pardon had a version set in London’s Victoria Park which is probably closer to the original song.

Song notes: Mike Yates

        ‘John Barleycorn’ is known from an early 17th century broadside, ‘A Pleasant new Ballad to sing both Even and Morne, Of the bloody murther of Sir John Barley-corne’ which was preserved in the Roxburghe Collection. Another text, this time in the Pepys Collection, was printed in London by John Gosson (1607-41). Early scholars, no doubt influenced by Frazer’s Golden Bough, tried to link the song to an ancient and widespread rite concerning the symbolic killing of the Grain (or Vine) Spirit. Others, however, see it as little more than a clever and amusing song without ritual content. The song has been collected widely throughout Britain - Robert Burns knew a fragment of it - whilst a text printed c.1860 by P.Brereton of Dublin has influenced singers in both Ireland and Canada.

The Farmer out of Gloucestershire

There was a jolly farmer came out of Gloucestershire
And all his intentions were to court some lady fair
Whose eyes shone like the morning star, whose hair was crimp and gay
She had grace within her face that was mixed with modesty.

As these two lovers stood talking, they loved each other well
Some person overheard them and her father they did tell
He promised her he would send him, far over the raging main
That he may no longer keep his fond daughter company.

It was in the springtime of the year, when pressing first began
In the thickest of the battle then, they placed the farmers son
Where he did receive a dreadful wound, in the hollow of his thigh
In the veins , he felt such pains, he was wounded dreadfully.

Then he was safely protected up to a sergeant laid
And the one he fixed his eye upon was the sergeants pretty maid
Most tenderly she dressed his wounds and bitter they did smart
Then said he, one like thee was the mystery of my heart.

Straight up to his commander and offered very large
It was five hundred sovereigns to buy my loves discharge
No money shall be wanted, farewell forever do
You can spend your days in old England and roam abroad no more.

And when she came to her father’s gate where they had both been before
So happy that young couple were to think they were safe on shore
Saying Father I have found him, and I’ve brought him safe on shore
We will spend our days, in old England

        This is one of a number of songs where a resourceful young girl rescues her sweetheart from the army or the navy. The couple, as is usual, then return home to marry. Lucy Broadwood printed a word set in her book English Traditional Songs and Carols (1908) and the Copper Family of Rottingdean in Sussex continue to sing it, under the title ‘Brisk and Lively La’d.

Song transcribed by Will Duke & Brian Wood

        The popularity of 'Constant Billy' is indicated by its inclusion in a small core group of tunes that were used at a large number of locations where morris dancing was practised during the 19th century. A variant of the tune was printed as early as 1718 and it remained popular for almost two centuries by its association with various song texts. Like every other morris dance musician before him, Jamie Wheeler has recast the tune to accommodate his own playing style, while still maintaining that all-important rhythm demanded by the dancers.

Tune notes: Keith Chander

The Sucking Pig

Come ye that love a bit of fun and listen here awhile
I’ll tell you of a droll affair that will give you cause to smile
A parson dressed all in his best cocked hat and bushy wig
He went up to a farmer’s house to choose a sucking pig.

Good morning said the parson, good morning sir to you,
I’ve come to choose a sucking pig, which you know it is my due
Therefore I pray go fetch me one that is both plump and fine
For I have asked a friend or two along with me to dine.

So in the sty the farmer goes among the pigs so small
And he chooses for the parson, the least amongst them all
When the parson saw the same, how he did rant and roar
He stamped his foot and he shook his wig and he almost cursed and swore.

Well then sir said the farmer, since my offer you refuse
I pray you go into the sty, there you may pick and choose
In the sty the parson ventured, without any more ado
The old sow ran with open mouth, and she at the parson flew.

Well the first she grabbed him by the coat and took off both the skirts
She ran her head between his legs and rolled him in the dirt
The parson cursed the very hour he’d ventured for the pig
You’d have laughed to see the little ones how they shook his hat and wig.

Well the next she grabbed him by the breeches, as he so loudly cried
Oh! Free me from this cursed pig or I shall surely die.
The little pig his waistcoat tore, his stockings and his shoes,
The farmer said you’re welcome, I hope you’ll pick and choose.

Well at length they let the parson out, all in a handsome trim
The sow and pigs so neatly in the dirt had rolled him
His coat was to a spencer turned, his brogues were ripped behind
And beside his backside was all bare and his shirt hung out behind.

He’d lost his stockings and his shoes, which grieved him full sore
Beside his waistcoat, hat and wig, they were all to pieces tore
Then of the parson, he scampered home, as fast as he could run
The farmer almost split his sides with laughing at the fun.

The parson’s wife stood at the door awaiting his return
But when she saw his awful plight, she into the house did run
My dear what is the matter, and where have you been she said
Get out you slut, the parson cried, for I am almost dead.

Go fetch me down a suit of clothes, go fetch ‘em down I pray
And bring me my old greasy wig, without any such delay
And for the usage I’ve received all in that cursed sty
I never will relish sucking pig, until the day I die.

To me Folla del lay, folla del lay, folla delara lay
Folla del lay, folla del lay, folla delara lay.

        Will learned this song from one of the singers who influenced him most: Arthur Howard who came from a sheep-farming family near Holme and who died in 1982 at the age of 79. In the notes with the recording that Arthur made of ‘The Suckling Pig’, Ian Russell writes, "This was probably the first song Arthur sang in public. As a young lad he would work as one of a team of grouse beaters and, if they were rained off, they would while their time away entertaining each other in remote moorland pubs such as the Isle o’ Sky. At a time when a tenth of a man’s produce and stock was paid to the church in tithes, the song must have seemed even more impudent."

Song transcribed by Will Duke & Brian Wood

The Old Man and his wife

There was an old man in the wood, as you shall plainly see sir,
He vowed he’d do more work in a day than his wife would do in three sir,
If that be so the old wife said and this you will allow sir
While I go drive the plough today and you shall milk the cow sir

But you must watch the speckled hen less she should lay away sir
And you must watch that spool of yarn that I spun yesterday sir
The old wife took the stick in hand and went to drive the plough sir
The old man took the pail in hand and went to milk the cow sir.

But Tiny winced and fussed about and Tiny flipped her tail sir
And Tiny gave the man a kick that milk ran from the pail sir
Oh Tiny pretty Tiny dear, my pretty cow stand still, ah
If I milk you another day it’s sore against my will, ah

He went to feed the sow and pigs, which were within the sty sir
He knocked his head agin the durn which made the blood to fly sir
He went to watch the speckled hen less she should lay away sir
He clean forgot the spool of yarn his wife spun yesterday sir.

He went within to get a stick, to give the pig her hire sir
The pig ran in between his legs and tipped him in the mire sir
And as he looked at cow and pig, he said I do agree sir
If my wife never works again, she’ll not be blamed by me sir.

        Whether titled ‘The Old Man and his Wife’ or ‘The Drummer and his Wife’, this is quite an old piece, and one that has proved especially popular in North America, be it in the Appalachians, the Ozarks or the Mid-West. In England it took on a new lease of life via a version that Cecil Sharp and Sabine Baring Gould included in their 1906 edition of English Folk Songs for Schools, although George learnt his version from another singer, rather than from a book.

Song transcribed by Will Duke & Brian Wood

Three Old Crows

There were three old crows sat on a tree, and they were as black as crows could be
All sing : There were three old crows sat on a tree, and they were as black as crows could be

And one old crow said to his mate “What shall we have this day for bait?
All sing : And one old crow said to his mate “What shall we have this day for bait?”

They flew across the burning plain, to where an oxen had been slain
All sing: They flew across the burning plain, to where an oxen had been slain

They perched upon his big backbone and pecked his eyes out one by one
All sing: They perched upon his big backbone and pecked his eyes out one by one

And this old crow flew into a tree and said “You old bugger, you shan’t shoot me”
All sing: And this old crow flew into a tree and said “You old bugger, you shan’t shoot me”

Amen.

Two Old Crows

There were two crows sat on a tree as black as black as crows could be
Said one old crow unto his mate “What will we have this day to eat?
We’ll fly away to yonder barn and fill our gutses up with corn
And when we have eaten and flown away, what will the poor old farmer say?”
I’ll go away and get my gun, and I’ll shoot those black things one by one
For the more I sows, the more I grows, it’s eaten by those bloody crows.

        Two versions of the ballad The Three Ravens (Child 26), which is first known from its appearance in ‘Melismata’. ‘Musicall Phansies’. ‘Fitting the Court, Cittie’, and ‘Countrey Humours’ published in London in 1611. In its original form, the ravens discuss what they might take from the body of a knight who lies slain in a nearby field. Later versions, though, have lost this element of the story and are far more mundane in character. Charlie and Bob, in common with most singers who still know a version of this song, use well-known tunes for their versions, in there cases, ‘Ye Banks and Braes of Bonny Doon’ and ‘Old Hundred’.

Song transcribed by Will Duke & Brian Wood

The Bonny Labouring boy

For as I strolled out one morning all in the blooming spring
I overheard a lovely maid in grief she did sing
About her cruel parents, they did her so annoy
For they would not let her marry, the bonny labouring boy.

For Johnny was her truelove’s name, as you can plainly see
Employed by her parents, a labouring boy to be
To harrow plough and sow the seed upon her fathers land
And soon she fell in love with him as you can understand.

She courted him for twelve long months but little did she know
That her cruel parents would prove her overthrow.
They watched them late one evening, down in a shady grove
Pledging their joys together in constant bonds of love.

Her father stepped up to her and took her by the hand
He swore he’d send young Johnny unto a foreign land
He locked her up in her bedroom her comfort to annoy
And he kept her there to weep and mourn for her bonny labouring boy.

Her mother came next morning and unto her did say
Your father is intending not to see you thrown away
So boldly she made answer and she made this reply
That single I will still remain for my bonny labouring boy

For his cheeks are like the roses red, his eyes as black as sloes
He is mild in his behaviour wherever he may go
He’s manly, neat and handsome, and his skin as white as snow
In spite of my parent’s malicy, with my labouring boy I’ll go.

So come fill your glasses to the brim and let them go merrily round
Here’s health to every labouring boy, that plough and till the ground
For when their work is over, they’ll come back home with joy
And its happy is the girl that gets the bonny labouring boy.

Song transcribed by Will Duke & Brian Wood

The Thrashing Machine

There was an old farmer in Dover did dwell
He had a fine servant her name it was Nell
He had a fine servant of sweet seventeen
When he showed her the way of his thrashing machine.

One day while the men were away in the hay
The Farmer saw Nell and to her he did say
Come into the barn where we cannot be seen
And I’ll show you the way of my thrashing machine.

The barn door stood open they both went inside
Nell laid her two cogs on the handle with pride
She pulled on the lever, she gave him full steam
For that was the way of his thrashing machine.

The first three months things went very well
Then Nellie’s old belly a story could tell
For under her apron ‘twas plain to be seen
Some chaff had blown there from his thrashing machine

The Judge he stood there with a pen in his claw
“Why you dirty old farmer, you’ve broken the law
There’s no turning today for the fields are so green
Pay three quid a week for your thrashing machine”.

Trip unto the Fair

One summer morning Johnny he rose
And dressed himself in his holiday clothes
Unto Miss Molly then he did say
“Come dress yourself, make no delay
We’ll trip unto the fair oh, we’ll trip unto the fair oh,
We’ll trip unto the fair.”

Miss Molly she smiled and winked at John
And her best new gown did then out on
“Come” she say, “Now let us be gone
Much pleasure I feel and declare”.
And as they linked arm in arm
Took an umbrella for fear of the storm
And as they tripped along the way
Those pretty young lambs did skip and play
When going unto the fair oh, when going unto the fair oh,
When going unto the fair.

And when unto the fair they came
With cake and wine, John fed his dame
And when unto the show they came
Cried Molly “I’d like to go there”.
When from the show they did come out,
Around the stalls John led her about
He bought her ribbons red, yellow and blue
And he promised what I won’t tell you
Coming home from the fair oh, Coming home from the fair oh,
Coming home from the fair.

And then when dusk it did come on
Sure Molly’s two eyes like stars did shine
“Come” she say “Now let us be gone,
Much pleasure I feel and declare.”
And as they tripped the meadows along
John sang to Molly a nicer song
Her foot did slip and by chance fell down
Said Johnny to Molly “You’ll green your gown”
Coming home from the fair oh, Coming home from the fair oh,
Coming home from the fair.
 

        Better known as ‘Jockey to the Fair’. John Bell, writing in 1877, had this to say of the song. “Jockey songs constitute a distinct and numerous class, and belong for the most part to the middle of the last century, when Jockey and Jenny were formidable rivals to the Strephons and Chloes of the artificial school of pastoral poetry”. (John Bell, Early Ballads & Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England) ‘Jockey to the Fair’ is, perhaps, best known today as a Morris Dance tune.

Song transcribed by Will Duke & Brian Wood

        Known elsewhere in the country as ‘The Wonderful Suckling Pig’ (not be confused with Will Noble’s song of the same name which is a completely different song), ‘The Sussex Pig’ belongs to a large group of songs that concern larger than life individuals - be they human or animal. Perhaps the best-known song in this group is ‘The Derby Ram’. It’s actually quite an old piece which, fittingly, is sung to an old tune, ‘Bow Wow Wow’ or, to use another title, ‘The Barking Barber’, which has also been used for quite a number of other songs, including Pop Maynard’s ‘Shooting Goshen’s Cock Ups’.

        ‘Green Broom’ may have begun life on the 18th century stage. The earliest known text appears in volume 6 of Thomas D’Urfey’s ‘Pills to Purge Melancholy’ of 1720 and it was subsequently printed on a number of Victorian broadsides. According to the Norfolk fisherman and singer Sam Larner, ‘Green Broom’ was used by the drift-net fishermen as a work song. "When (they) were hauling in their nets they would ‘come in on the chorus and pull’."

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