Brisk Young Farmer- Bowes (York) 1904 V. Williams
[From: Ralph Vaughan Williams Manuscript Collection (at British Library) (RVW2/3/11). A complete composite is offered using "usual" text of Bold Young Farmer.
R. Matteson 2017]
A Brisk Young Farmer- sung by Thomas Bowes of Westerdale, Yorkshire on 23 July, 1904. Collector: Ralph Vaughan Williams
A brisk young farmer courted me,
He stole away my liberty,
He stole my heart with my free good will,
I must confess I love him still.
[usual verses] [see complete text below]
[extra verse] When first I wore my apron low,
My love followed me thro' frost and snow,
But now my apron's up to my chin,
My love passes by and he says nothing.
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A Brisk Young Farmer- sung by Thomas Bowes of Westerdale, Yorkshire on 23 July, 1904. Usual stanzas from "Bold Young Farmer" both collected by Vaughan Williams.
A brisk young farmer courted me,
He stole away my liberty,
He stole my heart with my free good will,
I must confess I love him still.
There is an inn, in this same town,
Where my love goes and sits him down,
And takes another girl on his knee,
He tells her what he doesn't tell me.
Its grief to me, I'll tell you for why,
Because she has more gold than I,
But in needy time her gold shall fly,
And she shall be as poor as I.
When first I wore my apron low,
My love followed me thro' frost and snow,
But now my apron's up to my chin,
My love passes by and he says nothing.
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.
Go dig my grave both long, wide and deep,
Place a marble stone at my head and feet,
And in the middle a turtle dove,
To show the wide world I died for love.