There is a House- (UK) 1896 English Dialect Society
[No informant or location given. From: English Dialect Society - 1896; Publications, Volume 41 by English Dialect Society. Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
"When apples grow on orange trees." A variant of this common phrase concludes an old song which I do not remember to have seen in any printed collection. Here and there it is not unlike—though elsewhere manifestly inferior to— 'Waly, Waly, love be bonny,' in Percy's Reliques, and the Orpheus Caledonius.
i. There is a house in yonder town,
Where my love goes and sits him down;
He takes a strange girl on his knee,
O don't you think that's grief to me?
ii. 0 grief, O grief, I'll tell you why,
Because she's got more gold than I.
But her gold will waste, and her beauty blast;
Poor girl, she'll come like me at last.
iii. For when my apron-strings were low,
He follow'd me thro' frost and snow;
But now they are up to my chin,
He passes by and says nothing (sic)[1].
iv. 'I wish, I wish, but 'tis all in vain,
I wish I was a maid again;
A maid again I ne'er shall be,
Till an apple grows on an orange tree.'
A modern version of this song, set to a sprightly air, and entitled 'The best of friends must part,' or 'There is a tavern in the town,' was popular in England and America a year or so ago.
1. I'm not sure why (sic) is written.