THE GRENADIER AND THE LADY

Oh as I walk-ed out one morning in May
There I saw a young couple together at play
Oh one was a lady, I'll vow and declare,
And the other a soldier, a bold grenadier.

"Oh now", said the soldier, "shall we walk together?"
He wrapped his coat round her to keep her from the weather.
They walked till they came down to yonder spring
Where the small birds they whistle and the nightingales sing.

The soldier he caught up the lady by the middle
And out of his knapsack, he pulled out a fiddle
And he played her such merry tunes, called The Valleys Do Ring
"Hark, hark", said the lady, "how the nightingales sing."

"O now", said the soldier, "it's time to give o'er"
"O no", said the lady, "play me one tune more.
It's the charms of your music and the gauge of your string
"Hark, hark", said the soldier, "how the nightingales sing."

"Oh now", said the lady, "will you marry me.?"
"O no", said the soldier, "That never can be.
I've a wife and three children in the North count-e-ry
And a prettier woman did your eyes ever see.

And to the East Indies, love I am bound out,
To enjoy the sweet wine and the city* brown stout [*bitter?]
But if I ever return again, it will be in the spring
Where the small birds they whistle and the nightingales sing".

Collected from Charlie Carver at the Gardeners Arms, Tostock, Suffolk, 1960.