The Fowler- Harry Cox (Norfolk) 1947 REC
[Recorded for BBC in 1947; additional recording 1953?. Partial bio from Mike Yates follows. Additional notes at the bottom of this page. It seems likely that Cox learned his version from fellow Norfolk singer Walter Gales. It's source is unknown.
R. Matteson 2016]
Michael Yates: Harry Cox was born at Barton Turf in Norfolk in 1885 and, from an early age, earned his living working on the land. When he was young, his parents were unable to afford oil for houselamps, and much of his entertainment was home-made. Harry recalled that his mother would sometimes sing long ballads by the fireside. Occasionally somebody would play a music (melodeon). 'We had to cheer ourselves up. That was all the frolic we had', is how Harry put it. Harry learnt songs from both his father and grandfather, and, no doubt, from some of the many singers who also sang in The Windmill. (Kennedy mentions the names of Elijah Bell, Charlie Chettleburgh, Walter Gales, Billy Miller and Jack Risborough). While still under-aged, Harry would accompany his father to pub singsongs and it soon became natural for him to sing at such gatherings. It is, I think, interesting to note that Harry did not marry until he was 40 years old, and I am reminded of Walter Pardon, that other great Norfolk singer, who was never married. Did this freedom from early marital responsibility afford Harry the chance to indulge in his fondness for singing and hearing songs, just as it did Walter? Harry was only born some twelve miles from Walter' s home, although the two never met. Nevertheless, listening to Harry's conversations on this CD brought home to me not only how similar they sounded, Cover picturebut also how they seemed to share the same attitudes to singing and life in general. At times it was almost impossible to believe that it was Harry, and not Walter, who was talking.
The Fowler - from singing of Harry Cox in October, 1947 for a BBC session; also Folk Songs of Britain vol. 7, Topic (rec 1953)
So come all you young sportsman, that carry a gun
I will have you go home by the light of the sun,
For young Jimmy was a-fowling, was a-fowling alone.
When he shot his own true love in the room[1] of a swan.
So the first he went to her and found it was she,
He was shaking and trembling, his eyes scarce could see,
"So now you are dead, love, and your sorrows are o'er;
Fare thee well my dear Polly, I shall see you no more."
Then home went young Jimmy with his dog and his gun,
Saying: "Uncle, dear uncle, have you heard what I've done
Cursed be this old gunsmith that made me this gun
For I've shot my own true-love in the room[1] of a swan."
Then out come bold uncle with his locks hanging grey,
Saying "Jimmy, dear Jimmy, don't you run away.
Don't you leave your own counterie till the trial comes on,
For you ne'er shall be hanged for the crime you has done."
Now the trial came on and pretty Polly appear,
Saying: "Uncle, dear uncle let Jimmy go clear,
For my apron was wrapped round me when he took me for a swan,
And his poor heart lay bleeding for Polly his own."
[There are girls in this country who no-wise are sad,
To see pretty Polly all laid in her grave;
You may take them by the hundred; put them all in a row,
My dear Polly outshone them like a fountain of snow.][2]
1. Also appearing as "ru'," perhaps "ruse of a swan," or archaic, "dwelling place of a swan"
2. last stanza attributed to Cox by Jim Carroll, online.
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Harry Cox and His Friends: Song Transmission in an East Norfolk Singing Community, c. 1896-1960 by Christopher Heppa; Folk Music Journal, Vol. 8, No. 5 (2005), pp. 569-593. Published by English Folk Dance + Song Society.
BBC Recording of Harry Cox
Recorded at Sutton, Norfolk, October 27th, 1947
9. The Fowler ('The Shooting of his Dear') 13864
The oldest man in this singing community was Walter Gales, the Sutton boot and shoe maker/repairer, who also did some gamekeeping (Figure 9). Possessed of a beautifully sweet singing voice, it was only natural that Moeran should use some of his songs in his collection Six Songs from Norfolk (1924).49 One song in this collection is 'The Fowler', also called 'The Shooting of His Dear' or 'Polly Vaughan' (Roud 166/Laws 036). Moeran credits the song to 'Walter Gales and Harry Cox'. There is no indication, however, of whether the two men sang it together, or whether it is an amalgam of their individual versions. In fact, the tune used is certainly Walter's, with the characteristic ornament at the end of the second line which makes it sound better, to my ear, than Harry's tune. The dotted notes on Walter's version make the tune sound bouncier, Harry's sounding rather smoother. Moreover, it is Walter's words and tune for 'The Fowler', rather than Harry's, that Moeran had published in the Journal of the Folk Song Society in 1922.[50] (Figure 10) However, given the great similarity of their versions, it might be fair to assume that Harry learned this song from Walter Gales. Alternatively, Harry and Walter may have learned the song from Bob Cox, or from an unknown source. It is Harry Cox rather than Walter Gales who sang this song at the October 1947 session, however. 'The Fowler' had been associated with Harry as well as Walter for at least twenty-five years by then.
Bio: HARRY COX
ENGLISH FOLK SINGER
A PERSONAL NARRATIVE RECORDED AND INTRODUCED BY PETER KENNEDY
WITH FIVE SONGS
HARRY FRED Cox was born on October 10th, 1885, at Barton Turf, near Yarmouth, Norfolk. Now a widower of seventy-three and a retired farm worker he lives with his married daughter at Catfield. He was thirty-five when he first sang to the composer, the late E. J. Moeran, with a number of other traditional singers in the Hickling and Barton area, and some of his songs were published in the Folk Song Journals of 1922 and 1931. In the 1930's he made a record for the E.F.D.S.S. containing the songs 'Down by the Riverside' ('The Bold Fisherman') and 'The Pretty Ploughboy'. In 1942 he was visited by Francis Collinson who was then collecting material for the Country Magazine broadcasts, and three years later he took part in one of a number of East Anglian public-house recordings made by Mr. Moeran in conjunction with the B.B.C. Three of his songs were contributed to the Journal of 1946 by Mr. Collinson, and two of them were subsequently arranged and published, with others, in Songs from the Countryside (1946) and Folk Songs from 'Country Magazine' (1952). Naturally Harry Cox was included in the B.B.C.'s Folk Music Recording Scheme and I recorded several songs when I was sent by the B.B.C. to East Anglia in the autumn of 1953, and again in 1956. His version of 'The Foggy Dew' is now widely known since its inclusion on the H.M.V. records 'Folk Songs To-day' and 'The Barley Mow'.