Bunch of Green Holly & Ivy- Rev Cholmondely (Oxf) 1917 Blunt
[From: Janet Blunt Manuscript Collection (JHB/6/9); also Foxworthy, Forty Long Miles, n.d.
R. Matteson 2018]
A Bunch of Green Holly and Ivy- Sung by Rev. c. F. Cholmondely, at Harvest suppers in Adderbury, Oxfordshire, collected by Janet Blunt; 1917.
1. My father he gave me ten acres of land
Sing hey, sing ho, sing hidee-o
My father he gave me ten acres of land
With a bunch of green holly and ivy
2. I ploughed it with a team of mice,
3. I harrowed it with a bramble bush
4. I drilled it with a pepper pot,
5. I reaped it with my little pen knife,
6. I carried it home with a team of rats,
7. I thrashed it with a wimble strap (straw),
8 The miller broke his back for want of a pill
He broke his back for want of a pill