THE MOLECATCHER

In Wellington town at the sign of the Plough
There lived a molecatcher—shall I tell how?
He had but one wife, she was buxom and gay
And she and another young farmer would play.

The molecatcher being jealous all of the same thing,
He stepped in the brewhouse to see him come in.
He saw the young farmer get over the stile,
Which made the molecatcher begin for to smile.

He knocked at the door and thus he did say,
Where is your husband, good woman, I pray?
He’s a-catching the moles, you need never fear.
She little did think the molecatcher was near.

So he went upstairs to do his design
And the molecatcher followed him quickly behind.
Said he, Little do you think, old chap,
I have caught you in my trap.

I will make you pay dear for tilling my ground
And as for the money, it shall be ten pound.
Ten pound, said the farmer, I never will mind
For it will only cost me about threepence a time.

So now the young farmer must live at the last
For he spent all his money at the sign of the Cross.
He spent all his money, I cannot tell how.
I dare him hang up at the sign of the Plough.

Notes from Reeves:

Collected by Gardiner from Mr. George Digweed at Micheldever, Hants, May 1906

6.1 at the last: ? a corruption of at a loss
6.1 at the sign of the Cross: probably a euphemism for ‘in the support of bastard (i.e. cross-bred) children’, just as ‘the sign of the Plough’ implies fornication.

#93 in The Everlasting Circle, by James Reeves ©1960, p 191

No melody - text only in Reeves.