The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #39804 Message #566183
Posted By: Malcolm Douglas
06-Oct-01 - 08:48 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req/Add: turmut (?) hoer / Turnip Hoer
Subject: Lyr Add: TURNIT HOEING
I was wrong about the Somerset connection; thanks to "Cetmst" for reminding me about the set in Roy Palmer's book, which is probably closest to what Shaina is looking for.
TURNIT HOEING
(Traditional; from Charles Parsons, Knole Farm, Long Sutton, Somerset, 1903. Noted by Cecil Sharp)
Oh! I be a turnit hoer, from Zummerzetshire I came.
My parents is hard working volks, Giles Webster be my name.
'Twas on a zummer's mornin', e'en at the break of day,
When I took my hoe and off did go zum fifty miles away.
And zum delights in hay makin' and a vew be vond of mowin',
But of all the jobs that I like best, gi'e ae the turnit hoeing.
For the vlies, the vlies, the vlies be on the turnit,
And 'tis all no use for ae to try to keep them off the turnits.
O I be a tidy sort of chap and soon got I a place.
I went to work like any Turk and I took it by the piece;
And so I hoed on cheerfully and good Varmer Glower,
Who vowed and swore and said I wore a ripping turnit hoer.
And zum delights, &c.
In winter I drives oxen about the vields a-ploughin',
To keep the vurrow straight and clear all ready for turnit zowin'.
And when the vrost bars up the wheels, out on the land we're goin',
For without manure, 'tis zertain zure, no turnits won't be growin'.
And zum delights, &c.
In on work about the varm yard until time brings me mowin',
For I like half of it none so well as I do my turnit hoein'.
And when the harvest now begins and the nut-brown ale a-vlowin',
So I merely bids them all goodbye and I'm off to turnit hoein'.
And zum delights, &c.
From Everyman's Book of English Country Songs (Roy Palmer, 1979). Roy adds:
"I have done some hoeing, wrote A.G. Street in Farmer's Glory (1935), and it cured me of any desire to sing about it. I know from my own experience that it is monotonous, back-breaking work, and would have been inclined to suspect that the song's enthusiasm was ironic, if it were not for the enthusiasm with which country people sing it.
The song is a relatively late production, but it was certainly in existence by 1881, when the tune was adopted as the official march of the 1st Battalion of the Wiltshire Regiment (though perhaps out of conservatism the former march The Lincolnshire Poacher, did not in fact give way to the upstart until 1932). In the meantime the song had gained widespread popularity through a gramophone record issued in the 1920s by the country comedian Albert Richardson, who was perhaps better-known for There was an old man and he had a sow, complete with sound effects.
The Somersetshire version given here may seem impenetrable at first sight, but all (or nearly all) becomes clear if s is read for z and f for v."
Click here for midi: Turnit-Hoeing