THE PRETTY PLOUGHBOY

(Harry Cox, Catfield, Norfolk. Recorded by Charles Parker and Ewan MacColl, mid-1960s)

It's of a brisk young ploughboy; he was ploughing on the plain,
And his horses stood down in yonder shade.
It was down in yonder grove,
He went whistling to his plough,
And by chance there he met a pretty maid, pretty maid,
And by chance there he met a pretty maid.

So the song that he sang as they walked along,
"Pretty maid, oh, you are of high degree.
If I should fall in love and your parents they should prove,
Oh, the next thing they would send me to the sea, to the sea,
And the next thing they would send me to the sea."

So when her aged parents they came for to know
That her love he was ploughing on the plain,
They sent for the pressgang and pressed her love away.
And they sent him to the wars to be slain, to be slain,
And they sent him to the wars to be slain.

So she dressed herself up all in that's her best
And her pockets had been well lined with gold.
You should see her trudge the streets with a tear all in her eye.
She was searching for her jolly sailor bold, sailor bold.
She was searching for her jolly sailor bold.

So the first that she met was a jolly sailor bold.
"Have you seen my pretty ploughing boy?" she cried.
"He's just across the deep and he's sailing for the fleet."
And he said, "My pretty maid, will you ride, will you ride?"
And he said, "My pretty maid, will you ride?"

So she sailed until she came to the ship her love was in
And unto the Captain did complain.
She said, "I'm come in search for my pretty ploughing boy,
Who was sent to the wars to be slain, to be slain,
Who was sent to the wars to be slain."

So five hundred bright guineas she then did lay down,
And so freely she told them all o'er,
Until she got her pretty ploughboy all in her arms,
And she hugged him till she got him safe on shore, safe on shore.
And she hugged him till she got him safe on shore.

She set those bells to ring and so sweetly she did sing,
Just because she'd saved the lad that she adore, she adore,
Just because she'd saved the lad that she adore.


The above is quoted from the insert with Harry Cox: The Bonny Labouring Boy: Traditional Songs & Tunes from a Norfolk Farm Worker (Topic TSCD 512D, 2000). This recording was made some 30 years after that on A Century of Song, and doubtless differs in some particulars.


Roud 186 Laws M24

There are a good few broadside examples at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

The Pretty Ploughboy