WHAT’S THE LIFE OF A MAN

On 2 September 1904, Vaughan Williams collected this song and two more from J. W. Wright, plus two more from Frank Bailey, quite possibly together in the Fox and Goose in Coombe Bissett, Wiltshire.

A good reason to play Keith Kendrick with Coope Boyes and Simpson.

J.W. Wright was probably James Wright, aged about 38, an agricultural worker who later became a shepherd. Vaughan Williams wrote of Wright’s song ‘I doubt if it’s a folksong he learnt it 30yrs ago [sic]’, which would have meant Wright was a child at the time. This is not unlikely – in the 1970s Ginette Dunn was told that one well-known singer, Cyril Poacher, started to learn his repertoire sitting on the knee of his grandfather.

From Vaughan Williams's Journey into Folk by Caroline Davison. Subscribe for free to receive new posts. Next post: 8 October. Caroline Davison's new book The Captain's Apprentice was published by Chatto and Windus on 25 August 2022.