I'D SOONER GO HEDGING
(Frank Mansell)

I'd sooner go hedging than build a stone wall
All pick up and place it and hope it don't fall
When east winds blow bitter and keen in the trees
I'd sooner lay blackthorn than dry wall and freeze

I'd sooner go hedging, the best thing I know
For anger and anguish and woman made woe
No matter how hurt or insulted I feel
A tussle with blackthorn will help it to heal

I'd sooner go hedging than read in a book
For more you get thinking the darker things look
Since study and weeping are hard on the eyes
I'd sooner lay blackthorn than learn to be wise

I'd sooner go hedging than writing of verse
And weaving and rhyming as if by a curse
For little men care what a poet may scrawl
But a blackthorn well laid is a pleasure to all

I'd sooner go hedging than seek all my days
For wealth or position or other men's praise
Plain billhook and axe are the tools of my trade
Six shillings a chain is the rate I am paid

I'd sooner go hedging than lie in my bed
With a wench that grows sourer the longer she's wed
And much as I grieve for our loving when young
I'd sooner lay blackthorn than suffer her tongue

I'd sooner go hedging but come the next spring
I'll be up and be gone like a bird on the wing
And all I shall miss when I reach my new home
Will be hedges to slash at and blackthorn in bloom


Sung unaccompanied by Peter Tatham. Transcribed from a tape "Cotswold Ballads" of a number of Frank Mansell's poems, read by Frank, with some set to music and sung by Peter Tatham and Celia Carroll. (Recording recently reissued as a CD by Saydisc - CD-SDL 268).
PJH

Tune: abc file

X:1
T:I'd Sooner Go Hedging
C:Composer:
N: Roughly transcribed from the unaccompanied
N: singing of Peter Tatham of the poem by
N: Frank Mansell. "Cotswold Ballads"
N: (Phil Holland 13 Jan 08)
Q:1/4=120    %Tempo
V:1    %
    %!STAVE 0 'Melody' @
    %!INSTR 'Piano 1' 0 0 @
M:6/8    %Meter
L:1/8    %
K:G
z4 z B |BAG B d2- |d2 e dGA |G3- G2 d |
ede g3 |d2 e dGB |d3- d2 d |
ede g3 |d2 e dGB |A3- A2 B |
BAG B d2- |d2 e dGA |G3- G2 z |]
    %End of file

The tune is clearly based one of a number of similar trad tunes, but I'll leave it to you to argue which.

Phil