Long a-Growing: Harry Brazil (Glos) 1977 Davies/Also Danny Brazil 1966 Shepheard
[From: The Brazil Family: Down by the Old Riverside (MTCD345-7), 2007. Liner notes follow. Harry (wife Dolly), a traveller from Glouchester, was born March 1, 1901 in Ireland, Gloucester. He had a son Charlie, daughter Doris, married to Gilbert Davies, daughters Debbie and Pennie.
A second more complete version was sung by Danny Brazil of Gloucester on 5 January 1966 and taken from discussion with Harry and Danny (Springthyme 66.1.16). In: Shepheard, Peter. Folk Songs and Ballads of the Brazil Family of Gloucester (1967).
R. Matteson 2016]
Paul Burgess writes: There were 15 brothers and sisters in the Brazil family, of whom the younger members were recorded: Tom, Hyram, Lemmie, Harry, Alice (Webb) and Danny, as well as Doris Davies (Harry's daughter), her twin daughters Debbie and Pennie, and Alice Webb's son. Their parents were the main source of their material, especially their father - "He knew hundreds of songs."
Harry had a fine tenor voice and his songs were often carried by some luxurious modal tunes, although over the years he had sometimes telescoped the words to produce more compact versions than those sung by his brothers and sisters. He suffered from angina and this prompted him to give up singing several years before his death. His singing was obviously popular with his grandchildren, as on one of the recording The Blacksmith, they can be heard at the end reminding and urging him to sing one of the verses which he had omitted. I think of him as 'the cricketing singer', due to his habit of firing the question "'Owzat?" at the end of a performance! Like Danny, Harry was pleased that people should take an interest in his songs and his singing, and suggested that we could "set the tape recorder up on a Friday night at the Pelican - you'll get all the songs you want!" - although I'm not sure that a roomful of travellers whom we had never previously met would have been quite so immediately forthcoming!
Roud shows this song to be widely known, with 181 entries from right across the Anglophone world, but with the majority from England. It is most usually titled The Trees they do Grow High, but examples along the lines of Long a-Growing are also very frequent. Clearly its popularity endured until recently, since about one third of his entries are sound recordings.
Although the sad tale of such failed arranged marriages was universal, Aberdeenshire claims it firmly for the marriage and death three years later of the young Laird of Craigston in 1634, as attested by James Maidment in A North Country Garland (1824).
Other versions available on CD: George Dunn (MTCD317-8); Mary Ann Haynes (MTCD320); Lizzie Higgins (MTCD337); Ellen Mitchell (MTCD315-6); Fred Jordan (VTD148CD); Joe Heaney (TSCD518D); Harry Cox (Rounder CD1839); Walter Pardon (TSCD514); Duncan Williamson (Kyloe 101)
Long a-Growing. Sung by Harry Brazil. Rec: Gwilym Davies, Staverton, Glos, 27.11.77
. . .To marry me to my true love[1],
You know he was too young
"Dear daughter, dear daughter, I'll tell you what I'll do
I'll send your love to a college school for another year or two
All round his Scotch cap we'll pin the ribbons blue
To let all the ladies know that he's married."
Now as I was a-walking all by the college wall
I saw four and twenty college boys a-playing of a ball
And there I spied my own true love, he's the fairest of them all
And I said he was a long time a-growing.
Now the age of sixteen he was a married man
The age of seventeen he was the father of a son
The age of eighteen all on his grave the grass growed green
And it soon put an end to his growing.
Now I'll buy my love a coffin, the best of Erin brown
And while they are making it, those tears they shall flow down
I'll weep for him, I'll mourn for him, until the day I'll die
And I'll rear his loving son while he's growing.
1. first stanza mostly forgotten.
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The Bonny Boy Is Young - From the singing of Danny Brazil, Gloucester 5 January 1966 and from discussion with Harry and Danny (Springthyme 66.1.16). In: Shepheard, Peter. Folk Songs and Ballads of the Brazil Family of Gloucester (1967).
The trees they do grow high and the leaves are growing green,
The day is past and gone my love that you and I have seen;
It is a cold and winters night that I must lie alone,
For my bonny boy is young and a-growin.
“Oh father, dear father to me you have done wrong,
To marry me to my true love when you know he is too young;
For he is only sixteen years and I am twenty one,
My bonny boy is young but a-growing.”
“Oh daughter, dear daughter I’ll tell you what I’ll do,
I’ll send your love to college school for another year or two;
All around his Scotch cap we’ll pin the ribbons blue,
To let all the ladies know that he’s married.”
Now as I was a-walking all by the college wall,
I saw four and twenty college boys a-playing of a ball;
And there I spied my own true love he’s the fairest of ’em all,
An’ I said he was a long time a-growin.
Now at the age of sixteen he was a married man,
At the age of seventeen he was he father of a son;
At the age of twenty one his grave the grass growed green,
An’ it soon put an end to his growin.
Now I’ll buy my love coffin, the best of Erin brown,
An’ while they are making it those tears they shall flow down;
I’ll weep for him I’ll mourn for him unto the day I’ll die,
And I’ll rear his loving son while he’s growin.