Young But Growing- Caroline Hughes (Dor) c.1962 MacColl B
[From: Travellers' Songs from England and Scotland by Ewan Maccoll, Peggy Seeger; p.115. Also on Caroline Hughes- Sheep-Crook and Black Dog; Musical Traditions Records MTCD365-6
Caroline was the daughter of Arthur Hughes and Lavinia Frankham and spent most of her early life in the Dorset- Hampshire areas.
R. Matteson 2016]
MT notes: Caroline Hughes, respectfully and affectionately known to her Traveller community as Queen Caroline, was born in 1900 in a wooden, horse-drawn caravan in Bere Regis, Dorset. So begins the story of a passionate, eloquent and witty woman whose singing has influenced many a revival singer of traditional songs. She died in 1971.
B. "Young but Growing" Sung by Caroline Hughes about 1962, recorded by MacColl/Seeger.
1. O dear mother, o dear mother O you know just what you done,
You wed me to a nice young man, but you knowed (I) was too young.
Well, out of one-hundred, (he)[1] looked so blooming small,
But my bonnie boy, he's young but he's growing
2. . . .
At the age of seventeen he was the father of a son,
At the age of eighteen his grave was growing green,
And that soon put an end to his growing.
---------------------
Footnote:
1. MacColl had (I) which is obviously incorrect -- this is the last part of the stanza that begins:
She went to the college and looked over the wall,
She saw four-and-twenty gentlemen playing there at ball;