O Sally My Dear- Barnard (Bridgewater) 1906
From: Folk Songs from Somerset: Volume 3 - Page 60 by Cecil James Sharp, Charles Latimer Marson - 1906
No. 77. O SALLY, MY DEAR
Words and tune from Mr. Jack Barnard, of Bridgwater.
I have taken down variants of this ballad from Mr. William Davis, of Porlock Weir, and from Mrs. Balsh, of Ubley. It is clearly allied to " Hares on the Mountains," (Nos. 10 and 11), to the note on which the reader is referred. The words of the first three verses needed considerable alteration.
O Sally, my dear, but I wish I could woo you,
O Sally, my dear, but I wish I could woo you,
She laughed and replied: And would wooing undo you?
Sing fal-the-diddle-i-do, Sing whack fol-the-diddle-day.
O Sally, my dear, but your cheek I could kiss it,
O Sally, my dear, but your cheek I could kiss it,
She laughed and replied: If you did, would you miss it?
Sing fal-the-diddle-i-do, Sing whack fol-the-diddle-day.
O Sally, my dear, I would love you and wed you,
O Sally, my dear, I would love you and wed you,
She laughed and replied: Then don't say I misled you.
Sing fal-the-diddle-i-do, Sing whack fol-the-diddle-day.
If lasses were blackbirds and lasses were thrushes,
If lasses were blackbirds and lasses were thrushes,
How soon the young men would be beating the bushes!
Sing fal-the-diddle-i-do, Sing whack fol-the-diddle-day.
If the women were hares and raced round the mountain,
If the women were hares and raced round the mountain,
How soon the young men would be busy a-hunting.
Sing fal-the-diddle-i-do, Sing whack fol-the-diddle-day.
If the women were ducks and swum round in the water,
If the women were ducks and swum round in the water
The young men would turn drakes and be soon swimming after.
Sing fal-the-diddle-i-do, Sing whack fol-the-diddle-day.