An Acre of Land- Frank Bailey (Wilt) 1904 R. Vaughan Williams
[From: Songs Collected from Wiltshire by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Lucy E. Broadwood, Frank Kidson, Cecil J. Sharp; Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 2, No. 8 (1906), pp. 210-213.
R. Matteson 2011]
58.-AN ACRE OF LAND-- SUNG BY MR. FRANK BAILEY,
Title noted by R. Vaughan Williams. COOMBE BISSET, AUG. 3IST, I904.
Mly fa ther left me an acre of land,
There goes this i-ver-y. (?)
My fa ther left me an a cre of land,
And a bunch of green holly and i-ver-y.
I ploughed it with my ram's horn
There goes this ivery (?)
I sowed it with my thimble,
And a bunch of green holly and ivery.
I harrowed it with my bramble-bush,
There goes etc.
I reaped it with my penknife,
And a etc.
I sent it home in a walnut shell,
etc.
I threshed it with my needle and thread,
etc.
I winnowed it with my handkerchief,
etc.
I sent it to mill with a team of great rats,
etc.
The carter brought a curly whip,
etc.
The whip did pop and the waggon did stop,
etc.
The words are a version of an old nursery rhyme to be found in print in Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes. His version commences:
My father he left me three acres of land,
Sing Ivy, sing Ivy.
My father he left me three acres of land,
Sing holly, go whistle and Ivy.
I ploughed it one morning with a ram's horn,
Sing Ivy, sing Ivy.
And sowed it all over with one pepper corn,
Sing holly, go whistle and Ivy.
To this there has been printed the following fine old air, evidently traditional:
See Moffatta nd Kidson's Children's Songs of Long Ago (Augenera nd Co.)-F. K.
A Sussex quarry-man sang me a fragment of this song at Bury, near Amberley, with the refrain of " Sing ivy! " There are several known traditional versions in which plants figure in the burden, including "ivy," but it has been suggested that the latter word may be a corruption of " I-ho !" a favourite refrain in old drinking songs and ballads [as "Here's a health to jolly Bacchus,-I-ho, I-ho, I-ho" and "Blow the Winds, I-ho! "]
The ballad belongs to that large class of Riddle Tales or Songs which, as Professor Child reminds us, have their origin in the remotest antiquity. For his exceedingly interesting notes on the version here printed and on similar songs, see "Riddles wisely expounded " and " The Elfin Knight " in Child's English and Scottish Ballads. Other examples of traditional riddle-songs are "Scarborough Fair," " There was a Lady in the West," " I will sing you one, 0! " and "Cold Blows the Wind," (last verse only,) in English County Songs; " Whittingham Fair" in Songs of Northern England, "Scarborough Fair" in Kidson's Traditional Tunes, "The Dilly Song in Songs of the West, and " A Paradox" in Mlason's" -Nursery Rhyines."-L. E. B.
See also " The Lover's Tasks " and note thereto in Songs of the West No. 48.- C.J.S.