Lover's Tasks- Bessie Huxtable (Som) 1906 Sharp MS
[From Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/9/826).
R. Matteson 2018]
The Lover's Tasks- sung by Bessie Huxtable of Minehead, Somerset in January, 1906.
[1] Say can you make me a cambric shirt
Oh yes she said, Sweet William and time,
Without any needle or needle work?
And you shall be a true lover of mine.
[2] Wash it all up in yonder well
Water will never faddle (fall), na never know spring,
[3] Hang it all out on yonder thorn
Which never bear leaves since Adam was born,
[4] Can you plough me an acre of land
Between the sea and the salt sea strand?
[5] Plough it all over with one ram’s horn
And sow it all over with one pepper corn,
[6] Cut it all down with one strap of leather
And tie it all up with a Tom-tit’s feather?
[7] Put it all to the bottom of sacks,
And carry it home on a butterfly’s back,
[8] Put it all into a little mouse's hole
Oh yes she said Sweet William and time,
Thrash it all out with a cobbler's awl.
And then you shall be a true lover of mine.