‘And if that you won’t me employ,
One favour I’ve to ask,—
Will you shelter me, till break of day,
From this cold winter’s blast?
At break of day, I’ll trudge away
Elsewhere to seek employ,
To plow and sow, and reap and mow,
And be a farmer’s boy.’
‘Come, try the lad,’ the mistress said,
‘Let him no further seek.’
‘O, do, dear father!’ the daughter cried,
While tears ran down her cheek:
‘He’d work if he could, so ’tis hard to want food,
And wander for employ;
Don’t turn him away, but let him stay,
And be a farmer’s boy.’
And when the lad became a man,
The good old farmer died,
And left the lad the farm he had,
And his daughter for his bride.
The lad that was, the farm now has,
Oft smiles, and thinks with joy
Of the lucky day he came that way,
To be a farmer’s boy.
RICHARD OF TAUNTON DEAN;
OR, DUMBLE DUM DEARY.
[This song is very popular with the country people in every part of England, but more particularly with the inhabitants of the counties of Somerset, Devon, and Cornwall. [149] The chorus is peculiar to country songs of the West of England. There are many different versions. The following one, communicated by Mr. Sandys, was taken down from the singing of an old blind fiddler, ‘who,’ says Mr. Sandys, ‘used to accompany it on his instrument in an original and humorous manner; a representative of the old minstrels!’ The air is in Popular Music. In Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes of England there is a version of this song, called Richard of Dalton Dale.
Last New-Year’s day, as I’ve heerd say, [151]
Young Richard he mounted his dapple grey,
And he trotted along to Taunton Dean,
To court the parson’s daughter, Jean.
Dumble dum deary, dumble dum deary,
Dumble dum deary, dumble dum dee.
With buckskin breeches, shoes and hose,
And Dicky put on his Sunday clothes;
Likewise a hat upon his head,
All bedaubed with ribbons red.
Young Richard he rode without dread or fear,
Till he came to the house where lived his sweet dear,
When he knocked, and shouted, and bellowed, ‘Hallo!
Be the folks at home? say aye or no.’
A trusty servant let him in,
That he his courtship might begin;
Young Richard he walked along the great hall,
And loudly for mistress Jean did call.