LEMADY ("Lark Rise To Candleford" version, as sung on the recording by Martin Carthy)

Hark, says the fair maid, the nightingale is singing
The larks they are ringing their notes up in the air
Small birds and turtledoves on every bough are building
The sun is just a-glimmering; arise my dear.

Rise up, my fair one, and pick your love a posy
It is the finest flower that ever my eyes did see
It's I will bring you posies, both lily-white pinks and roses;
There's none so fair a flower as the lad I adore.

Lemady, Lemady, you are a lovely creature
You are the fairest flower that ever my eyes did see
I'll play you a tune all on the pipes of ivory
So early in the morning before break of day.

(Arise and pick a posy, sweet lily pink and rosy
It is the finest flower that ever I did see
Small birds and turtledoves on every bough are building
The sun is just a-glimmering; arise my dear.)

This is the best transcription I can manage; Carthy seems still to have been in his "blurred" phase when he sang it. To be honest, this looks like the most garbled version I've come across (of not very many). The melody is a bit different from the Copper Family's set, which itself seems to have an incomplete text.

There's another version of the text on an earlier thread (you probably know anyway, but it's at http://www.mudcat.org/thread.CFM?threadID=11800 ) but I couldn't find any information as to where it came from. I've been promised a Cornish version of the song; if that's of any interest to you, I'll pass it on when I get it.

Malcolm Douglas