The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #168353 Message #4067566
Posted By: Reinhard
06-Aug-20 - 11:41 PM
Thread Name: Origins/ADD: Truro Agricultural Show
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Truro Agricultural Show
Cyril Tawney sang Truro Agricultural Show on his album A Mayflower Garland.
He gave as his source Dr. Dunstan’s Cornish Dialect and Folk Songs, too.
Cyril Tawney: Truro Agricultural Show
TRURO AGRICULTURAL SHOW
Ee-I-O and away we go
To Truro Agricultural Show.
Good people all who hear my voice,
You now have reason to rejoice;
For off to Truro you may go,
To see the Agricultural Show.
CHORUS (after each verse):
But/So/And don’t go kissing the girls you know
At Truro Agricultural Show.
A motley group you will see there,
Fat farmers and their wives so rare;
Their bouncing daughters neat and clean,
With a pork-pie hat and a crinoline.
From Newlyn East, St Columb, too,
There’s hump-backed Jim and carroty Joe;
And a special train upon the rail
To bring all the thieves from Bodmin Jail.
They’ve got a band from Plymouth down,
The best that ever was in the town;
All the gentry will be there:
It’s twice as pretty at Whitsun Fair.
There’s horses, ponies, cows and calves,
Truro don’t do things by halves.
Devon bulls, sheep, pigs and geese:
You can see it all for a shilling apiece.
There’s things up there that’ll make you laugh;
There’s a two-legged cow and a nine-legged calf,
A billy-goat that comes from Wales
With sixteen eyes and seventeen tails.
Now all around I hear them say,
“We’ll see this show this very day;
Off we go, all in a row,
To Truro Agricultural Show.”
I’m glad you’re come, I see you’re here;
There’s thousands come from everywhere:
Rich and poor and high and low,
At Truro Agricultural Show.
Roy Palmer has nearly the same verses in his book A Touch on the Times.