Here's the version from Roy Palmer:

POOR FROZEN-OUT GARDENERS

We're broken-hearted gardeners, scarce got a bit of shoe;
Like pilgrims we are wandering and we don't know what to do.
Our furniture is seized upon, our togs are up the spout;
Cold winter it is come at last and we are all froze out.

Long time have we been seeking employment for to gain,
And we have suffered sorely, all through the heavy rain;
These times they are so very hard and the winter winds do blow;
Oh, think upon the poor folk in the bitter frost and snow.

Behold the wealthy squire, in his carriage he can ride,
Or, bless'd with all the comforts, sit down by a good fireside,
While with our aching hearts we are compelled to walk about
With a cabbage on a pole, and a-bawling 'All froze out.'

How pleasant for to rise up in the merry month of spring,
To hear the blackbird whistle and the nightingale to sing;
The gardener being so cheerful and early in the morn
Is busily engaged in a-mowing of the lawn.

Sometimes so busily employed in trimming of the vine,
Or sowing little cabbages with a dibble and a line;
Laying out the beds and borders or stringing of the peas,
A-budding or a-grafting or pruning of the trees.

To gather from the honey-suckle, how busy are the bees,
To what they are in winter time when it begins to freeze;
The pretty maid a-milking do trip along so gay,
Or else across the meadows they're a-making of the hay.

In summer time the leaves upon the trees appear so green;
In autumn they do fade and fall and none are to be seen.
The hollyhock, the dahlia, the lily, pink and rose,
The turnips and the cabbages are all together froze.

Or listen with attention before you close your doors,
And think upon the dreadful state all of the languishing poor;
Our families are starving, we can no longer stay,
So think upon the poor folk all on a winter's day.

Source: A Touch On The Times - Roy Palmer


Barry and Ingrid Temple sing a version with minor textual changes, verses 5 and 6 above omitted and a chorus added by Barry:

All froze out, all froze out
Oh pity the poor gardener,
All froze out.

They use the title All Froze Out and a different tune from the one Roy Palmer set it to.

Palmer gives a sources: Words: broadside printed by Sharp of London (Nottingham University r PR1181 B2), and tune: Dives And Lazarus (Chappell 748). (I haven't checked to see if there's any text at the Bodleian).

The Chappell reference has an incomplete text of 1 verse to the tune:

"WE ARE POOR FROZEN OUT GARDENERS

This is the tune of many songs. If the reader should meet any half-a-dozen men perambulating the streets of London together, and singing, the probabilities are great that they sing to this tune. Sometimes the men are dressed like sailors; at other times they look like workmen out of employment. I recollect hearing the tune at Kilburn, full forty years ago, and have, with tolerable annual regularity, ever since. I regret never having stopped to hear the words."

The words for the verse are:

We are poor frozen out gardeners...
...We've got no work to do...
...
...alas! what shall we do?



I'll try and put the tunes up later.

Mick