The Trees They Are Withered- Mrs. Jane Hann (Dor) 1906 Hammond
[From: Henry Hammond Manuscript Collection (HAM/4/26/4). This fragmented and corrupt version is from Hammond's MS.
R. Matteson 2016]
The Trees They Are Withered- Sung by Mrs. Jane Hann of Stoke Abbot, Dorset in June, 1906; Collected by H.E.D. Hammond
The trees they are withered and the days they are gone,
The days are gone and past my love that you and I have seen,
It's a cold winter's night, my love, and I must lie alone,
whilst my bonny boy is young, but he's growing.
I made my love a shirt[1] of the holland so fine,
Every stitch in it, I brought it to my mind,
And every stitch in it, I brought it to my mind[2],
whilst my bonny boy is young, but he's growing.
Dear father dear father, you have done to me much harm,
You've married me to a boy and I'm sure he is too young
. . .
Whilst my bonny boy is young, but he's growing.
Dear daughter, dear daughter if you don't think it's fair
I'll send him to some cottage[3] from year unto year,
I'll tie a white ribbon all around his cut hair,
For it's to let the ladies know he is married.
As I looked over my father's wall,
[There were] four and twenty school boys playing at the ball,
Oh! where is my true love before I see them all,
Whilst my bonny boy is young, but he's growing.
At the age of fourteen he was a married man,
At the age of fifteen he was the father of a son,
At sixteen his grave oh his grave it did grow green,
And that put and end to his growing.
1. shroud
2. forgotten 3rd line- 2nd repeated
3. college