Perhaps I should post the song as Henry Burstow sang it. You'll see that Rod and Frank have made a fair few alterations between them.


THE EIGHTEENTH OF JUNE

(Sung by Henry Burstow, Horsham, November 1905. Noted by R Vaughan Williams)

You people that live at home easy,
And free from the riot of war
*
*
Know that long has the scythe of destruction
Been sweeping our nation around;
It never yet cut with such keenness
As on the great eighteenth of June.

From half past five in the morning,
To half past seven at night
The people of the [ ? ]
Never before saw such a sight,
When the thunder of five hundred cannons
Proclaiming the battle was won,
The moon in the night overshone,
As recorded the eighteenth of June.

You lasses whose sweethearts were yonder,
Go gaily and buy a black gown,
A thousand I will lay to a hundred
He fell on the eighteenth of June,
Sixty thousand stout hearted mortals
That fell, made an awful paltune [?]
Many a sad heart will remember
With sorrow the eighteenth of June.

What a sad heart had poor Boney
To take up instead of a crown
A canter for Brussels and Paris
Lamenting the eighteenth of June.


X:1
T:The Eighteenth of June
S:Henry Burstow, Horsham, Sussex. November 1905.
Z:Noted by Ralph Vaughan Williams
N:Learnt by Henry from J Shoebridge, Rifle Brigade, who had fought at Waterloo.
B:The Journal of the Folk Song Society, vol II (issue 8, 1906) p 193.
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
M:6/8
K:G
"Aeolian"(E/F/)|G B d B3/2 A/ G|E E z z z E|
w:You_ peo-ple that live at home eas-y, And
G B B (A/G/) E D|E3 z z (E/F/)|
w:free from the ri_ot of war,
G B d B3/2 A/ G|E E z z z E|
w:* * * * * * * * * * *
G B B (A/G/) E D|E3 z z E/ F/|
w:* * ** * * * * Know that
G3/2 A/ B d e f|d B z z z A|
w:long has the scythe of de-struc-tion Been
B e d B A G|D3 z z D|
w:sweep-ing our na-tion a-round; It
E F G A B D|D E z z z E|
w:nev-er yet cut with such keen-ness As
G/ A/ H(B3/2A/) G E D|E3 z z|]
w:on the great_ eight-eenth of June.


The Journal of the Folk Song Society, vol II (issue 8, 1906) p 193.

Mr Burstow (who was 78 at the time) seems to have been a little unsure of some of the words, and to have omitted two lines in the first verse; he didn't list the song among the 420 that he considered to be his "active" repertoire. There is no clear indication that the final half-verse was used as a chorus. Vaughan Williams added the following note in his MS:

"Sung to Burstow by J. Shoebridge, Rifle Brigade, who was in the Battle of Waterloo and, Burstow thought, learnt it there."

Evidently this was Jim Shoubridge, who is mentioned briefly in Burstow's memoirs (Reminiscences of Horsham, 1912, p. 46) as a local veteran of Wellington's campaigns. Genealogical data (source unspecified) at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website refers to a James Shoubridge, christened at Horsham on 2 February 1783: quite likely the same man.