Fol di-diddle dol-di-day.

MAYING

The “Mayers” went about singing and soliciting alms for some weeks before the first of May. The following is a portion of one of their songs, and a variant may be found in Halliwell’s Palatine Anthology, which was given to him by Ormerod, the Cheshire historian. The tune taken down by Egerton Leigh, and given in his book of poems, is terribly mutilated, but I have reconstructed it by the aid of a very similar Lancashire tune. It is undoubtedly old, and the commencement on the supertonic is very quaint. The words are distinctly above the average of old ballads:

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CHESHIRE MAY SONG

I

All on this pleasant evening together come are we,

For the summer springs so fresh, green, and gay,

To tell you of a blossom that buds on every tree,