This is the version I got from the band - Rough Music (a very old Cassette tape) and it was sung by Richard Valentine - I don't know where the version comes from....?? I haven't sung it for years...tune is too like another song I now sing!

SHEEPCROOK & BLACK DOG

Here's me sheep-crook and me black dog,
I give it to you.
Here's me bag and me budget,
I bid it adieu.
Here's me sheep-crook and me black dog,
I leave them behind.
Fine laurel, fine floral,
You've proved all unkind.

All to my dear Dinah these words I did say,
“Tomorrow we'll be married love,
tomorrow is the day.”
“'Tis too soon dear Willy my age is too young,
One day to our wedding is one day too soon.”

“It’s I'll go into service if the day ain't too late,
Oh, to wait on a fine lady it is my intent,
And when into service a year or two bound,
It's then we'll get married and both settle down.”

A little while after a letter was wrote,
For to see if my dear Dinah had changed her mind.
But she wrote that she'd lived such a contrary life,
She said that she'd never be a young shepherd's wife.

(Repeat first verse)



Tim Radford