White is for a wedding, a wedding, a wedding,
White is for a wedding, and that won’t do.
Black?
Black is for the mourners, mourners, mourners,
Black is for the mourners, and that will do.
Poor Jenny Jones is dead, dead, dead,
Poor Jenny Jones is dead, and lies in her grave.
—Southampton (from nursemaid of Mrs. W. R. Carse).
We’ve come to see Jenny Jones, Jenny Jones, Jenny Jones,
We’ve come to see Jenny Jones, is she at home?
Jenny Jones is scrubbing, scrubbing, scrubbing,
Jenny Jones is scrubbing, you can’t see her now.
[Then follow verses asking alternately “Is she at home?” in the same words as the first verse, and answering that she is
- (1) washing,
- (2) ill,
- (3) dying,
- (4) dead;