The Trees are Getting High- George Ede (Sur) 1896
[My title. From English Traditional Songs and Carols edited by Lucy Etheldred Broadwood, 1908; also Journal of the Folk-Song Society, I (4) 1904, 214-5. Her notes follow. The 5th stanza was not included in English Traditional Songs and Carols because of it's sexual nature.
Listen to this cover version titled "The Bonny Boy" as performed by A.L. "Bert" Lloyd. Recorded in London, UK, 1951; Call number: AFC 2004/004: T3280R06.
Listen: http://research.culturalequity.org/rc-b2/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=10260
R. Matteson 2016]
This ballad is said to be founded on fact, and to date from the time when betrothals and marriages of mere children, " for convenience," were not uncommon. The "bonny boy " has been sometimes identified with young Urquh'art of Craigston, who was married by the Laird of Innes to his daughter Elizabeth Innes, and died in 1634 (see "Lady Mary Anne" in Johnson's Scots Musical Museum, Vol. iv.), and a Scotch version has the title " Craigston's Growing." For other references and versions, tunes and words, see Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. i., p. 214, and Vol. ii., pp. 44, 95, and 206; Songs of the West; Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs; and Folk Songs front Somerset. A good version of words is on a broadside printed by Such and called "My Bonny Lad is young, but he's growing." The version here given was sung first to the editor by Mr. Ede whilst he was trimming hedges. and the fierce snap of his shears at the words " So there was an end -of his growing" came with startling dramatic effect. A few words of Mr. Ede's version have been transposed or slightly altered where rhyme or metre absolutely necessitated it, and one stanza has been omitted. The original, however, is in Journal of the Folk Song Society, Vol. i., p. 214.
OH, THE TREES ARE GETTING HIGH - Collected by Lucy Broadwood from George Ede of Dunsfold, Surrey, in 1896.
1. "Oh! the trees are getting high, and the leaves are growing green;
The time is gone and past, my love, that you and I have seen!
Twas on a winters evening, as I sat all alone,
There I spied a bonny boy, young, but growing.
2. Oh mother! dear mother! you've done to me much wrong!
You've married me to a bonny boy, his age it is so young!
His age is only twelve, and myself scarcely thirteen!'
Saying, My bonny boy is young but a-growing.
3. "Its daughter! dear daughter! I have done to you no wrong;
I have married you to a bonny boy, he is some rich lord's son,
And a lady he will make you, that's if you will be made,"
Saying, Your bonny boy is young, but a-growing!'
4. "Oh mother! dear mother! I'm but a child 'tis true,
I'll go back to my old college for another year or two;
I'll cut off my yellow hair, put my box upon my head,
And I'll gang along with it to the college."
5. And 'twas on one summer's morning by the dawning of the day,
And they went into some cornfields to have some sport and play,
And what they did there she never will declare,
But she never more complained of his growing[1].
6. And at the age of thirteen he was a married man;
And at the age of fourteen he was father of a son;
And at the age of fifteen then his grave was growing green:
So there was an end to his growing.
1. This is less explicit than Nicol's version published in 1824. Broadwood left this stanza off in her English Traditional Songs and Carols book.