Alan

Here's the full text from Samuel Burman. It's quite a short version compared to usual. (The version Sharp had from Charles Ash had 6 verses and from Mrs.Coombes had 5 verses. Two versions of The Game of All Fours at the Bodleian have 8 verses each. The Roud index has 96 entries for #232 under various titles: All Fours/Game of All Fours/Game of Cards/The Cards and other. If you want versions from Norfolk, Sam Larner did a version on Now Is The Time For Fishing and on Over The Dogger Bank; Seamus Ennis recorded a version for the BBC from Ben Baxter of Southrepps; these are the only Norfolk entries in the index).

I think you're right about the Kennedy book; from the bits I saw at google, when looking for info the songs earlier, it looked as if there was only a list of those collected. I don't know if it has any info on his collecting method. There is more information on his collecting in Vaughan Williams on Music by David Manning. You can see a lot of it at google books.

Mick

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THE GAME OF CARDS

As I was a-walking one midsummer morning,
It happened to be a hot summer's day,
And who should I spy but a beautiful damsel
As she was a-walking all on the highway.

I said: My fair pretty maid, where are you going?
Where are you going so soon in the morn?
She said: Kind sir, I am going to Gloucester
In that pleasant country where I was born.

I said: My fair pretty maid, may I go with you
All for to bear your sweet company?
She turned herself round and gazed all on me,
Saying: You may go with me, kind sir, if you please.

We had not walked a mile and a half together
Before we came under a shady green tree.
I sat myself down and she sat herself by me
And the games that we played there was one, two and three.


Source: Cecil Sharp's Collection of English Folk Songs ed Karpeles. Sung by Samuel Burman (86) at Durnston, Somerset, 6 April 1908