Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England
1857
Robert Bell's 1857 revision of the volume James Henry Dixon edited for the Percy Society in 1846, collecting the ballads and songs still being sung by English country people. Dialect pieces, broadsides and harvest songs are printed with notes on where each was taken down.
- Introduction
- The Plain-Dealing Man
- The Vanities of Life
- The Life and Age of Man
- The Young Man’s Wish
- The Midnight Messenger
- A Dialogue Betwixt an Exciseman and Death
- The Messenger of Mortality
- England’s Alarm
- Smoking Spiritualized
- The Masonic Hymn
- God Speed the Plow, and Bless the Corn-Mow
- A Dialogue Between the Husbandman and the Servingman
- The Catholick
- The Three Knights
- The Blind Beggar of Bednall Green
- The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood
- The Outlandish Knight
- Lord Delaware
- Lord Bateman
- The Golden Glove
- KING JAMES I. AND THE TINKLER. [72a]
- The Keach I’ the Creel
- The Merry Broomfield; Or, the West Country Wager
- Sir John Barleycorn
- Blow the Winds, I-Ho!
- The Beautiful Lady of Kent
- The Berkshire Lady’s Garland
- The Nobleman’s Generous Kindness
- The Drunkard’s Legacy
- The Bowes Tragedy
- The Crafty Lover
- The Death of Queen Jane
- The Wandering Young Gentlewoman
- The Brave Earl Brand and the King of England’s Daughter
- The Jovial Hunter of Bromsgrove
- Lady Alice
- The Felon Sewe of Rokeby and the Freeres of Richmond
- Arthur O’bradley’s Wedding
- The Painful Plough
- The Useful Plow
- The Farmer’s Son
- The Farmer’s Boy
- Richard of Taunton Dean
- Wooing Song of a Yeoman of Kent’s Sonne
- The Clown’s Courtship
- Harry’s Courtship
- Harvest-Home Song
- Harvest-Home
- The Mow
- The Barley-Mow Song. I
- The Barley-Mow Song. II
- The Craven Churn-Supper Song
- The Rural Dance About the May-Pole
- The Hitchin May-Day Song
- The Helstone Furry-Day Song
- Cornish Midsummer Bonfire Song
- Suffolk Harvest-Home Song
- The Haymaker’s Song
- The Sword-Dancers’ Song
- The Sword-Dancers’ Song and Interlude
- The Maskers’ Song
- Gloucestershire Wassailers’ Song
- The Mummers’ Song
- Fragment of the Hagmena Song
- The Greenside Wakes Song
- The Swearing-In Song or Rhyme
- Fairlop Fair Song
- As Tom Was A-Walking
- The Miller and His Sons
- Jack and Tom
- Joan’s Ale Was New
- George Ridler’s Oven
- The Carrion Crow
- The Leathern Bottel
- The Farmer’s Old Wife
- Old Wichet and His Wife
- The Jolly Waggoner
- The Yorkshire Horse-Dealer
- The King and the Countryman
- Jone O’ Greenfield’s Ramble
- Thornehagh-Moor Woods
- The Lincolnshire Poacher
- Somersetshire Hunting Song
- The Trotting Horse
- The Seeds of Love
- The Garden-Gate
- The New-Mown Hay
- The Praise of a Dairy
- The Milk-Maid’s Life
- The Milking-Pail
- The Summer’s Morning
- Old Adam
- Tobacco
- The Spanish Ladies
- Harry the Tailor
- Sir Arthur and Charming Mollee
- There Was an Old Man Came over the Lea
- Why Should We Quarrel for Riches
- The Merry Fellows
- The Old Man’s Song
- Robin Hood’s Hill
- Begone Dull Care
- Full Merrily Sings the Cuckoo
- Jockey to the Fair
- Long Preston Peg
- The Sweet Nightingale
- The Old Man and His Three Sons
- A Begging We Will Go