BABES IN THE WOOD

O, don't you remember, a long time ago
Those two little babes, their names I don't know?
They strayed away one bright summer's day,
Those two little babes got lost on their way.

Chorus:
Pretty babes in the wood, pretty babes in the wood,
O, don't you remember those babes in the wood

Now the day being gone & the night coming on,
Those two little babies sat under a stone.
They sobbed & they sighed & they sat there & cried,
Those two little babes they laid down & died.
Ch:

Now the robins so red, how swiftly they sped,
They put out their wide wings & over them spread.
And all the day long on the branches they thronged,
They sweetly did whistle & this was their song.
Ch:

From "Bob & Ron Copper", Folk-Legacy 1964. The sleeve notes by Peter Kennedy say that this song, although widely reported in America, only one other version has been found, always in Southern England. He also says it appears to be a fragment of a much longer ballad of broadside origin.
For those who may not be familiar with the Copper family, they would be worth making a pilgrimage, twice I've seen them & I don't think I'll ever hear better. They trace themselves back to 1611 in around Rottingdean, on the Sussex seaboard of England. Their songs were collected & appeared in the 1st Journal of the English Folk Song Society, 1899. It was from this family that we get much of the English songs done be the Watersons, Steeleye Span, Frankie Armstrong, Silly Sisters, John & Tony, etc,etc,etc,etc. I don't think there's a singer who hasn't touched on the Coppers, if they at all touch English songs. Barry