Blind Beetles- Caroline Hughes (Dors) 1963 REC
[From the recording titled, Blackdog & Sheepcrook MTCD365-6 also Folktracks FSA 043. Recorded by Ewan MacColl around 1963, recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1968. It's the B version in Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland - page 198 by Ewan Maccoll, Peggy Seeger.
This variant begins with a stanza from "Oxforshire Tragedy" -- the last stanza is similar to a version from Dorset collected in 1905:
There was three worms on yonder hill,
They neither could not hear nor see;
I wish I'd been but one of them
When first I gained my liberty.
It is usually "blind bird"= "three worms" but MacColl called it the "blind worm motive." His comment floored me- as if it was a common motive. This is where I thought "three worms" came from- a standard stanza appears:
There is a bird on yonder tree,
They say it's blind and cannot see;
I wish it had been the same with me
Before I joined his company.
R. Matteson 2017]
B. "Blind Beetles," sung by Dorset gypsy Carolyne Hughes (1902-1971), as recorded by MacColl around 1963. It was later recorded by Peter Kennedy in 1968 who titled it "Blind Beetles."
1 O for that dear girl, she roamed those meadows,
She were picking these flowers by one, two or three;
She picked, she plucked until she gained
Until she gathered her apron full.
2 O, when I were single, I wear my apron strings long;
My love passed me by and say nothing;
But now my belly it's up to my chin,
My love he pass by and frowns on me.
3 A grief, a grief, I'll tell you for why:
Because that girl she's got more gold than me;
Well, gold shall glitter, her beauty will fade,
That's why it puts back a poor girl like me.
4 On yonders hill, there stands an alehouse
Where my true love goes and sets himself down,
He takes another strange girl on his knee
And kisses her and frowns on me.
5 A grief, a grief, I'll tell you for why:
Because that girl she's got more gold than me;
Well, gold shall glitter, her beauty will fade,
That's why she'll become a poor girl like me.
6 On yonders hill there's blind beetles crawl,
As blind as blind could be
I wish to God that I'd been one of those
Before I gained my love's company.