The Sheep Shearing Song

The first weekend in June, it's officially Summer and we're greeted with sunshine and showers and an old lady on a chair... lovely!

This weeks song must well be familiar in one version or another to many of the listeners, this set of lyrics were collected in Wooton Fitzpaine, Dorset by the Hammond brothers in 1906. Being familiar with previous versions of the song, this one touched me as it comes from closer to my family home and includes a lovely rise in the chorus that adds a beautiful little touch carrying with it a sense of the summer coming.

The song was originally entitled 'The sheep shearing ballad' and was part of the play 'The Country Lasses; or, The Custom of the Manor' first staged in 1714. On it's many runs the song obviously slipped off the stage and into the public conciousness in the Southern counties where the few versions of this song appear

Tim

Here's a rosebud in June, the sweet violets in full bloom
And the birds singing gaily on every green bough
Here's the pink and the lily and the daffy-down dilly
To adorn and perfume the sweet meadows in full bloom

Whilst out at plough the fat oxen go slow
And the lads and the lasses do sheep shearing go

Here's the cleanly milk pail, it is full of brown ale
Our table, our table, our table we'll spread
We'll eat and we'll drink, we'll laugh joke and sing
As each lad takes his lass all on the green grass

Ch.

And when we have sheared all our jolly, jolly sheep
What joy can be greater than to talk of the increase
Here's the ewes and the lambs, here's the hogs and the rams
And the fat wethers too, they will make a fine show

Ch