The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #19113 Message #3083152
Posted By: Jim Dixon
27-Jan-11 - 01:04 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Brimbledon Fair / Young Ramble-Away
Subject: Lyr Add: BRIMBLEDON FAIR / YOUNG RAMBLE-AWAY
From Folk Songs from Somerset, Volume 3 edited by Cecil J. Sharp & Charles L. Marson (London: Simpkin & Co., Ltd., 1906), page 61, where there is also musical notation for one voice and piano:
BRIMBLEDON FAIR, or, YOUNG RAMBLE-AWAY
1. As I was a-riding to Brimbledon Fair, I saw pretty Nancy a-curdling her hair. I gave her a wink and she rolled a dark eye, And said I to myself: "I'll be there by and by."
2. I watched and I watched, all the night in the dark, For to ask pretty Nancy to be my sweetheart, But all that she said, when I saw her next day: "And are you the young rogue they call Ramble-Away?"
3. I said: "Pretty Nancy, don't laugh in my face." But she answered by slipping away from the place. So to find her I rambled through fair Lincolnshire, And I vowed I would ramble I did not care where.
4. Come all you young maidens, wherever you be, And find pretty Nancy and bring her to me. And all you young ramblers, you mind and take care, Or else you'll get brimbled at Brimbledon Fair.