The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #170212   Message #4116178
Posted By: RTim
11-Aug-21 - 12:23 PM
Thread Name: Origins: ‘The Pricketty Bush’ and British origins
Subject: RE: Origins: ‘The Pricketty Bush’ and British origins
I sing the version collected in Hampshire by Bob Copper and published in his book - Southern Songs and Breezes (for more details see Reinhard's Mainly Norfolk link above:

THE PRICKLE HOLLY BUSH.
Oh Hangman stand for awhile
For I think I see my own dear Mother
Coming over yonder stile.
Oh Mother have you got any gold
Or silver to set me free,
For to keep my body from the cold clay ground
And my neck from high gallows tree.
Oh no I’ve got no gold
Nor silver to set thee free,
For I have come to see you hang
Hang from the high gallows tree.

Oh the Prickle Holly Bush
It pricked my heart full sore
And if ever I get out
Of the Prickle Holly Bush
I’ll never get in it any more.

Then - Father, Sister, Brother & Lover
Etc. But lover HAS gold, etc.

As sung here on my SoundCloud site...https://soundcloud.com/tim-radford/prickle-holly-bush

Tim Radford