Origins: English Country Garden

Subject: English Country Garden Lyrics
From:
Date: 13 Mar 97 - 04:02 PM

Iwould Like the lyrics for the above song.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From:
Date: 13 Mar 97 - 07:57 PM

Does it have lyrics?? I thought it was just a dance tune

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Ricky Rackin
Date: 13 Mar 97 - 09:41 PM

I remember John Roberts singing a lovely ditty that went : "Newspapers torn and strewn across the lawn That's an English country garden" !!! Are you out there John?

Subject: RE: double threads
From: ricky
Date: 13 Mar 97 - 09:43 PM

This is a common problem/why?

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Dick Wisan
Date: 13 Mar 97 - 10:29 PM

Are you thinking of the tune Percy Grainger made out of "The Vicar of Bray"? Used to be played, along with the Shepherd's Hay (Hey?) by pit musicians between the acts on Broadway theatres (in the days when there were pit musicians at non-musicals).

If so, we sang it in school. Let's see how much of it I can remember.

Fiddlers a-tuning, timing it clean
While the morris dancers tread the green
(bis) Blossoms of the pear tree
Deck anew the bare tree
Spring is a-bringing leaf and flow'r
Now it's toe, now it's heel
Now all together wheel
While the old folks test
Who dances best

That's _not_ all of it, and I've probably left out bits in the middle, but it's not bad after not thinking of it for the last thirty years or so.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Anne Cormack
Date: 15 Mar 97 - 01:52 AM

There was a song that was widely played on radio when I was a kid called English Country Garden, I can't remember many of the words, but they were something like:

How many kinds of flowers can you grow

In an English country garden,

I'll tell you now of some that I know

And those I miss, I beg your pardon,

(then followed a long list of different flowers which I can't remember)

I don't know if this is the song you mean, but it might jog someone else's memory....

Good luck!!

Anne

Subject: Lyr Add: ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN
From: Alastair UK
Date: 30 May 98 - 08:13 PM

I've just found these - the complete words as far as I know:

How many flowers do there grow,
in an English country garden.
I'll tell you now, of some that I know,
and those I miss, you'll surely pardon.
Daffodils, hearts-ease and flocks,
meadow lea, and lilies, stocks,
Gentle lupins and tall hollyhocks.
There are roses, fox-gloves, and forget-me-knots,
in an English country garden.

How many insects find their homes
in an English country garden.
I'll tell you now of some that I know,
and those I miss, you'll surely pardon.
Dragonflies, moths and bees,
spiders falling from the trees,
Butterflies sway in the mild gentle breeze.
There are hedgehogs that roam
and little garden gnomes,
in an English country garden.

How many songbirds fly to and fro,
in an English country garden.
I'll tell you now of some that I know,
and those I miss, you'll surely pardon.
Babbling, coo-cooing doves,
robins and the warbling thrush,
Bluebirds, lark, finch and nightingale.
We all smile in the spring,
when the birds all start to sing
in an English country garden.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: rich r
Date: 30 May 98 - 08:51 PM

From one of my 1950's piano instruction books I remember only the following 2 lines:

Come let us go where soft breezes blow
And the lovely country gardens grow.

rich r

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: BK
Date: 31 May 98 - 06:40 PM

Mary O'hara has a lovely ballad of this name on one of her albumns; I think the words are a bit different than those I see here, but if I have time, I'll check.. If the words here are not those you need, let me know, and I'll try to find the vinyl - that's one problem; since we moved here the vinyl's harder to access than the CD's 'cuz we don't have the room in this house to have them readily accessable..

Cheers, BK

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From:
Date: 01 Jun 98 - 08:33 AM

The song in Question was recorded by Jimmie [F] Rodgers in the early sixties. This is the same fella that had hits in the fifties such as "Honeycomb" and "O-Oh I'm falling in love again." For some reason it only seemed to have been a hit over here in the UK rather than his native US. There was another person of the same name who died in 1933 but this one is still alive. Of course only an American would think that you would find Blue-birds in England but there y'go. The Lyrics posted above by Alistair UK are those to this recording.

Regards

John Hill

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 01 Jun 98 - 07:02 PM

Either I'm hallucinating, or...

one of my piano books contained a piece whose tune fit the words Alastair gave: "How many flowers do there grow, in an English country garden?" Some adult told me that the words "in an English country garden" went with the tune. But the piano book said it was an old dance tune called "Dorothy". FWIW.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Bruce O.
Date: 02 Jun 98 - 11:05 AM

An ABC of the old "Country Gardens" tune used for "The Vicar of Bray" is on my website, B488. The tune seems to be first found in a ballad opera, and is listed in my ballad opera tune index, and there's another early copy, listed in my dance tunes file CNTYDAN2. I've never seen any 'original' words to the tune.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: jehill
Date: 02 Jun 98 - 01:16 PM

The tune to this song is definately much older than the words. I'm pretty sure that the lyrics only date back to the Jimmie Rodgers recording.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: SlowAlan
Date: 04 Jun 98 - 10:38 AM

Country Gardens is a Morris dance tune - that is why Percy Grainger teamed it with Shepherds Hey, also a Morris Tune. I think Grainger recorded a piano roll called Morris Medley.

Grainger, I think, got his tunes from the FieldTown Morris versions of the tunes, which also occur in other Morris traditions. The Longborough dancers also call a variant of the tune Highland Mary - though I do not have a clue why, it is called Country Gardens elsewhere. I am sure that the lyrics are fairly recent - they have a sick ring of English 19th century sentimentality.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: JEHill
Date: 04 Jun 98 - 12:46 PM

I think you will find that the lyrics are not English at all. They reflect an American rose-tinted view of what England must be like.
There are still a large nunmer on the other side of the pond that think we still all live in thatched-roofed cottages with roses around the door. I guess it would be nice if we did but its not like that here at all alas.
I don't believe you will find these lyrics before the Jimmie Rodgers record, who it must be stressed is an American pop/c&w singer and is still around.
Regards John

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Alan of Australia
Date: 06 Jun 98 - 11:59 AM

G'day,
I expect this song would be familiar to most Aussies. I'm also sure that the words were written by Percy Grainger.

Cheers,
Alan

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: jehill
Date: 06 Jun 98 - 01:06 PM

I found a copy of an LP today by Jimmie Rodgers including "English Country Garden" at a record fair. On the sleeve it says for this track "traditional adapted, J. Rodgers" there is no mention of Percy Grainger writing the words. Jimmie Rodgers seems to be an American folk singer not a pop/c&w like I said before so I was wrong there.

Regards

John

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From:
Date: 07 Jun 98 - 06:34 PM

I thought Jimmie Rodgers was dead. Are there two? Around the water tank, and that stuff?

I remember this tune as being the theme for many years of a radio gardening show aired in Easter Canada.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Bruce O.
Date: 07 Jun 98 - 07:19 PM

I'm pretty sure that Jimmie Rodgers has been dead for many years. The tune was the theme for a gardening radio broadcast in the 1940's, maybe even earlier, on a station in Seattle. Cecil Solly was the gardening expert's name. This theme music introduced the broadcast.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 12:47 AM

I believe there were two Jimmie Rodgers, The original "Traveling Brakeman" Blues yodeling one, and some C & W star a generation later, who I don't think is much remembered except that his name gets in the way of talking about the "Real" Jimmie Rodgers.

Anyway....

People stop and pee,

underneath a tree,

in an English country.......etc.

Frank t.t.s.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: jehill
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 04:00 AM

I wouldn't think that Jimmie Rodgers thinks that he is not the "real" one. Those of us who grew up in the fifties remember him as having a number of hits, the last being "English Country Garden" in 1963 or so. Until I did a search on the "net" I'd never heard of this earlier yodelling fella who died in 1933. Before my time I think, I've never heard any of his records anyway. I don't think that yodelling cowboys have ever been too popular over here in the UK.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Bruce O.
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 02:14 PM

Thanks, I did't know there was one after the yodeling brakeman.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Earl
Date: 08 Jun 98 - 07:40 PM

The dead one is Jimmie and the live one is Jimmie [F]. Jimmie [F] also did a great version of "Kisses Sweeter than Wine."

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From:
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 12:28 PM

Thanks Earl... I was beginning to think I was the only one who actually remembered who sang the darn song. Strewth!! Jimmie Rodgers' record was on the radio all the time in the early sixties... we got absolutely sick of it.
Regards
John

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 05:54 PM

Bruce, the tune on your database is more or less the one I remember, so I assume it's the one that goes with these words. However, the last measure is a whole step too low.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Bruce O.
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 06:02 PM

I'l check it.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Bruce O.
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 06:13 PM

Yes, there were two notes wrong in the last measure (now corrected). I thought I had proof-read all the tunes and played them, but that one escaped somehow.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From:
Date: 09 Jun 98 - 10:03 PM

Here' a little version that helps me remember the tune:

What do you do when you can't find the loo In an English Country Garden? Undo your pants and terroize the ants In an English Country Garden.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 11 Jun 98 - 03:30 PM

I'm proofreading an 80-some-page report right now, and am re-learning the lesson I learned in the magazine business: there's always another typo.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Bruce O.
Date: 11 Jun 98 - 04:04 PM

I was appalled once when one of my papers was sent for review to someone who didn't know anything about the subject. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. A person that does't know about the subject will read what's actually there, not what they think is supposed to be there, and will catch all the typos.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Frank in the swamps
Date: 13 Jun 98 - 06:13 AM

Full apologies to the real Jimmie Rodgers. I've no business "dissing" folks I'm unaware of having heard, but I sure wish his name SOUNDED as different as it's SPELLED.

Frank i.t.s.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Suibhan
Date: 14 Jun 98 - 01:50 AM

What comes after "Undo your pants and terrorize the ants?" I'm dying to perform this for my harp teacher.

Suibhan

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From:
Date: 27 Sep 98 - 03:37 PM

Revive to replace new thread.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From:
Date: 27 Sep 98 - 08:05 PM

What do you do when you can't find a loo in an English Country Garden? Pull down your pants and do it in the plants, in an English Country Garden. Grab a leaf and wipe your underneath in an English Country Garden!

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: IanC
Date: 31 Jul 01 - 10:18 AM

Just for the record

The melody for Country Gardens first appeared under that title in The Quaker's Opera (printed in London, 1728). The tune was collected by Cecil J. Sharp and Herbert C. MacIlwaine in 1907 as the Hankerchief Dance, and it is Sharpe that Australian pianist/composer Percy Grainger credits in the preface to his piano arrangement.

Cheers!
Ian

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: pavane
Date: 31 Jul 01 - 11:21 AM

The history of Morris Dance and Tunes is quite complex, but basically, the dancers had to dance to whatever their musician could play (or sing, if no musician was available). Most available dances are called by names of 17th/18th/19th century 'pop' songs, even though the dances may be older. Sometimes the names and tunes got swapped about, so Highland Mary (a song) could have been swapped to Country Gardens by one team, although others still used the original Higland Mary tune. There are at least a dozen versions of Constant Bill, Black Joke, Shepherds Hey.
Summary - you get dances of the same name to different tunes, and dances to the same tune with different names

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 31 Jul 01 - 12:51 PM

I have a very irreverant version of this with words by Dominic Behan, v.v. satirical

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: CRANKY YANKEE
Date: 31 Jul 01 - 01:46 PM

The guy who sang, "Honeycomb" , in the early 60's, was (is?) Hank Snow's son. Full name, "Jimmie Rodgers Snow" so I've been told. He changed the spelling of his first name, to avoid confusion, and deleted "Snow" So that no one would expect him to sing like his father. He "made it" on his own. His name change was the smartest thing he could have done. He has his own style and way of performing, and it wasn't until many many years after his big records that his full name was known to the general public.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: CRANKY YANKEE
Date: 31 Jul 01 - 01:56 PM

The Late Jimmie Rodgers, also knopwn as the "Singing Brakeman" imported the Hawaiian type of yodeling which came to the mainland with the Hawaiian Guitar (Steel guitar, dobro, etc. ) His contribution to American Folk music, country music and Rock and Roll, can not be overstated. He had an atrocious sense of "Meter" and timing, but more than made up for that with his great number of original songs.
I'm no Jimmie Rodgers fanatic, but I do appreciate his talent and songs. The Songs can be sung "on Meter" with a little "fooling around" with the lyrics.

BY THE WAY, HE REALLY WAS A BRAKEMAN.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 31 Jul 01 - 02:23 PM

Surprised that a Mudcatter doesn't know the Jimmie Rodgers (1897-1933) who is considered by many to be the Father of Country Music. Few homes (American or Canadian) with a Victrola lacked his recordings, unless they were completely classical in bias. Sometimes known as the Singing Brakeman or the voice of the 'bo. Cds of his work are available. I remember going to a concert (1930s) where Percy Grainger played. Of course, English Country Garden was one of his encores. Everyone hummed along or sang a few words of the song, which was popular at the time, but definitely not his. In his biog., he said he "dished up" the tune when he was in U. S. WW1 Army bands (Australian born and buried, but spent most of his life in the States). "Mock Morris" was an early composition, composed when he was in England before 1914.

Subject: Lyr Add: MY ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN (Penny Black)
From: clansfolk
Date: 31 Jul 01 - 03:55 PM

Thought you might enjoy this parody from the singing of John Bond and Penny Black


MY ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN.
As recorded by Penny Black Folk on "A Snapshot of Penny Black" (2013)

How come the flow'rs just never seem to grow
In my English country garden?
I'll tell you some of the reasons that I know
And those I miss, I'm sure you'll pardon:
Nettles in the flower bed, sparrow droppings on the shed,
Stick to the walls and harden.
Oh, how come the weeds all propagate their seeds
In my English country garden?
----------
Thistles – don't forget the thistles.
----------
I took a look at an illustrated book
Showing ev'ry garden creature.
There are a few that I can show to you,
That the author didn't feature:
Kamikaze bumblebees, anaconda centipedes,
Even a vampire robin.
It takes a gun, not a spray, to keep the beasts away
From my English country garden.
----------
Woodlice - don't forget the woodlice.
----------
Now, I can't believe that Adam and Eve
Wanted Eden for their garden.
I'll venture that they'd have swapped it for a flat,
If the church would beg my pardon.
When Adam and the serpent met, Adam took it as a pet,
Serpents can be domesticated.
But I can surely name a few that he can't tame,
In my English country garden.
----------
Hedgehogs - he can't tame the hedgehogs.
----------
So verily I say that I will never be
A vegetable grower,
So I've decided what I ought to do,
And to hell with Percy Thrower:
Cover it with broken bricks, get a load of Ready-Mix,
Spread it and let it harden.
Then I'll cultivate a concrete* estate,
In my English country garden.
---------
Robin--what about the robin?
Robin--vampire robin.

* Concrete - pronounced con-ca-rete.

Subject: Lyr Add: ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN (parody)
From: Skipper Jack
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 03:54 PM

This is a parody on "English Country Garden"

(I can't remember who wrote the song?)

ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN (parody)

No kind of flowers ever seem to grow
In my English country garden.
Here are some interesting reasons that I know,
Which I hope you'll surely pardon?
Thistles in the flower beds,
Sparrow droppings on the shed
Stick to the walls and harden.
Why do the weeds propagate their seeds
In my English country garden?

I can't believe that Adam and Eve
Would choose England for their garden.
I venture that they'd have settled for a flat,
If the church would surely pardon.
When Adam and the serpent met,
Adam took it for a pet.
Serpents can be domesticated yet!
But he's never seen the beetles that have been
In my English country garden.

Somehow I feel that I shall never be
A vegetable grower.
So I've decided what I must do,
And to Hell with Percy Thrower.
Buy a ton of broken bricks,
Get a load of Ready-mix.
Set them and let them harden.
I contemplate a concrete estate,
Not an English country garden.

(Percy Thrower was a TV gardening expert)

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Ebbie
Date: 17 Mar 02 - 05:15 PM

And then there is the Jimmie Rodgers that is the subject of this article, who was born James Frederick Rodgers in Camas, Washington in 1933. Although there is no relationship of any kind between any of the three, (ibid) it is possible that the younger Jimmie Rodgers was named for the older one as that was a popular name given to baby boys in the early 1930's. www.tsimon.com/rodgers.htm -

To the best of my knowledge, I think it's been firmly established that the Jimmie Rodgers who had the Honeycomb, et al, hit is not related to Hank Snow, either. If Snow had, as I seem to remember, a son whose middle name was/is Rodgers, in all likelihood it was in tribute to the Singing Brakeman.

Look at Merle Watson, late son of Doc's- named after Merle Travis, but no relation.

Ebbie

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: GUEST,bat
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 06:03 PM

I remember some of the verses of the song that we learned in grade school during the late 1950's as such:

... while the Morris dancers tread the green.

Morris dancers make a maid aware,
Every eye that spies her, finds her fair.

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Juan P-B
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 06:31 PM

I have a version of the 'Nettles in the flower beds, Sparrow droppings on the shed@ which i learned froma band I played in in the '70's and they took it from a Fred Wedlock Album

I wrote an extra verse which went:

There's aphids & slugs and a million kinds of bugs
In my English Country Garden
Thousands of ants & pests to rot your plants
in an English Country Garden
I tried all the pest controls
Like Liquid Derris & aerosols
But sodium Chlorate was the only thin that worked
It killed all the pests (but it also killed the rest)
Of my English Country Garden

Juan P-B

Subject: RE: English Country Garden Lyrics
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 04:50 AM

Just to complete the 'record'; from the "Guinness Book of British Hit Singles" (snappy title, but 'Guinness Book of records' was already in use!)

  Jimmie RODGERS US, male vocalist
  Nov '57 HONEYCOMB                       30(highest position in chart)
  Dec '57 KISSES SWEETER THAN WINE         7
  Mar '58 OH-OH I'M FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN 18
  Dec '58 WOMAN FROM LIBERIA              18
  Jun '62 ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN           5
  

Cheers

Nigel

Subject: Lyr Add: ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN (Jimmie F Rodgers)
From: GUEST,colin wood west midland uk
Date: 22 Jan 06 - 07:58 PM

There ARE 2 singers named JIMMIE RODGERS

The first one was a folk and country legend known as 'the singing brakeman' born in 1897 and died in 1933 from tuberculosis.

The second one (JIMMIE F. RODGERS - absolutely NO RELATION to Hank Snow) was known as a rock 'n' roller (though this is contentious)--who was, curiously enough, born in 1933 and is still alive to this day living in California. This is the one who had hits with 'Honeycomb', 'Kisses Sweeter Than Wine', 'English Country Garden' and quite a few others. Apparently he got 'worked over' by a copper who had pulled him over for a traffic violation in the middle of the night in the San Fernando Valley in 1967, fracturing his skull which all but ended his career. Though nothing was proven in court, he was compensated to the tune of 200,000 American simoleons.


ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN
As recorded by Jimmie F. Rodgers

How many kinds of sweet flowers grow
In an English country garden?
I'll tell you now of some that I know
And those I miss you'll surely pardon:
Daffodil, heart's ease and phlox,
Meadowsweet and ladies' smocks,
Gentian, lupine and tall hollyhocks,
Roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, forget-me-nots
In an English country garden.

How many insects come here and go
Through our English country garden?
I'll tell you now of some that I know
And those I miss you'll surely pardon:
Fireflies, moths and bees,
Spiders climbing in the trees,
Butterflies that sway on the cool gentle breeze.
There are snakes, ants that sting,
And creeping things,
In an English country garden.

How many songbirds fly to and fro
To our English country garden?
I'll tell you now of some that I know,
And those I miss you'll surely pardon:
Bobolink, cuckoo and quail,
Tanager and cardinal,
Bluebird, lark, thrush and nightingale.
There is joy in the spring
When the birds begin to sing
In an English country garden.

Robin, don't forget the robin.
Robin, don't forget the robin.


P.s. Strange to mention 'bobolink, cardinal and bluebird' as these are native American birds!

Happy singing in the bath!
Colin Wood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf9EsJXSMXg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: masato sakurai
Date: 22 Jan 06 - 09:16 PM

Jimmie "Honeycomb" Rodgers' "English Country Garden" [audio] is here.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: Tradsinger
Date: 23 Jan 06 - 02:46 AM

But the thread still doesn't mention who wrote the words to ECG. My memory tells me it was Fred someone, an American. Can anyone elucidate. The tune of course became popular after Sharp noted it from William Kimber, musician for the Headington Quarry Morris. Sharp published the tune and Grainger liked it and arranged it.

Gwilym

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: GUEST,DB
Date: 23 Jan 06 - 05:14 PM

The parody - which ends with the "broken bricks/concrete estate" verse was written, in the late 60s, by Alan Twelvetree, resident and organiser of Peterborough (UK)Folk Club.

This club used to meet on a Sunday evening. On British TV, on Sunday afternoons, there used to be a curious puppet show called 'Pinky & Perky'. This featured two (puppet) pigs who sang songs in high pitched voices (weird, or what!!). One Sunday evening, at the club, we were all delighted because Alan's 'Country Gardens' parody had been featured on 'Pinky & Perky' that afternoon; this would be about 1968/69.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Dec 07 - 03:12 PM

The following from the Philharmonic Winds site, about Percy Grainger, includes a portion of a letter from Percy Grainger to Cecil Sharp concerning royalty from the song.

"Country Gardens is one of the English Folk tunes that was collected and notated by British Folk tune revivalist, Cecil Sharp. It was collected from some rural part of England. The rough sketch by Grainger was scored for ...whistlers and a few instruments about 1908. Worked out for piano, spring, 1918. This was a birthday gift for his mother, Rose in July 3, 1918.
"The name of Percy Grainger and Country Gardens, based on the folk song The Vicar of Bray, seem to be inseparable. At the ending of a concert in 1918 he played his arrangement on this tune, given by Cecil Sharpe. The audience was very pleased with it, and Grainger decided to have it published. Country Gardens broke all selling records; in the U. S. only more than 40,000 copies a year were sold. Until his death in 1961, Country Gardens generated a great deal of Grainger's income. In his letter to Sharp he wrote:

"At the risk of seeming impertinent, I take the liberty of again making a suggestion with regard to the royalty of Country Gardens. It has proven even more of a success than I had expected, and you will see from the enclosed photocopy that it has broken Schirmer's sales records. I hope you will forgive me if I ask you once again if you will consider sharing the royalty with me. I feel that it is quite undeserved that I should enjoy the whole of it myself."
   Percy Aldridge Grainger

"Country Gardens inevitably overshadowed his other works, which caused the composer much astonishment and disquiet. Grainger remarked: "The typical English country garden is not often used to grow flowers in, it is more likely to be a vegetable plot. So you can think of turnips as I play it." He rather ([he] received the same level of enthusiasm for his Hill Songs, Lincolnshire Posy of the Warriors. But whatever it is, it is difficult to deny that this work had hidden the merits and the wider acceptance of other works of his."

Country Gardens

The sheet music was published by Schirmer, and also by Schott, London, 1919.
Schott title: "Country Gardens": English Morris dance tune, collected by Cecil J. Sharp and set for piano by Percy Aldridge Grainger. British Folk music settings, no. 22. A copy is in the National Library of Australia, Music collection. On the sheet music is the note, "Birthday gift, mother, July 3, 1918."
http://nia.gov.au/nia.mus-an6245130

Subject: Lyr Add: AN ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN (Nana Mouskouri
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Dec 07 - 08:57 PM

AN ENGLISH COUNTRY GARDEN
(Sharpe/Jordan)
As recorded by Nana Mouskouri on "Songs of the British Isles" (1976)

How many gentle flowers grow
In an English country garden?
I'll tell you now of some I know
And those I'll miss I hope you'll pardon.
Daffodils, heartsease and phlox
Meadowsweet and lily stocks
Gentian, lupin and tall hollyhocks
Roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, forget-me-nots
In an English country garden.

How many insects find their home
In an English country garden?
I'll tell you now of some I know
And those I miss I hope you'll pardon
Dragonflies, moths and bees
Spiders falling from the trees
Butterflies sway in the mild gentle breeze
There are hedgehogs that roam
And little gnomes
In an English country garden.

How many songbirds make their nests
In an English country garden?
I'll tell you now of some I know
And those I miss I hope you'll pardon.
Bobolink, coo cooing doves
Robins and the whirlwind(?) thrush
Bluebird, lark, pigeon, nightingale
We all smile in the spring
When the birds all start to sing
In an English country garden.


The bobolink is an accidental visitor to England; only about 25 sightings of this bird which breeds in North America and winters in South America. Other versions of the song include quail, cardinal, etc., which are American birds. The J. Rogers version may have been responsible for these birds appearing in the song. The Mouskouri lyrics otherwise list English birds.

Transcribers of this song seem not to know some of the commonly grown flowers, and mis-spellings such as flox or flocks, instead of phlox, are common on the internet. Ladies smocks, mentioned in some versions, are also known as cuckoo flowers or bitter cress (Cardamine).

Few folksong singers seem to have added the song to their repertoire, probably because of its association with Grainger and the more classical type of program.

Does anyone have the lyrics as collected by Sharp?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: Rowan
Date: 04 Dec 07 - 10:17 PM

In Oz, most people who recognise the tune or words to the song maintain, vehemently, that "it was written by Percy Grainger" and often refuse to acknowledge the origin of the arrangement was a Morris tune.

Grainger was an interesting character, who was almost the first to use wax cylinder recordings when collecting songs and tunes in the field; he used them to demonstrate the inability of Sol fa techniques to deal adequately with the grace notes, microtones and rhythm shifts that he routinely encountered among sources who were regarded, by academics, as incapable of such things because they hadn't received formal music education.

He invented a music generator that was a precursor to electronic music synthesisers, clothing made of terry towelling and numerous other oddities; he even composed orchestral arrangements that included concertinas. All this is celebrated in the Percy Grainger Museum at Melbourne University, which has a vast collection of info about him.

He also had an odd and intense relationship with his mother, Rose, and was known to practise self flagellation, which accounts for one parody, common in Oz, that starts

Whip me, beat me, tie me to a tree
in an English Country Garden

But I forget how the rest of it goes; I prefer playing the Morris tune as collected from Kimber by Sharp, and as played for me on my (then new) Crabb by the Rev. Barraclough in the anteroom to the Cecil # House library.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Dec 07 - 11:04 PM

When I was a child, I heard Grainger play it in a concert he gave in my home town. This was in the 1930s. Community Concerts or something like that- a subscription series for small town folk outside of the big cities.
Grainger did call it a morris dance, tune as noted in an earlier post of mine; I would like to see the version collected by Sharp, which I haven't been able to find.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: Snuffy
Date: 05 Dec 07 - 09:11 AM

"Country Gardens" is the Morris dance. The Morris Ring Archive has this extract from a letter of Kimber to Sharp:

Of course they did not know the tune (Country Gardens). I says, wonder where they got that tune from. One man said it was the "Vicar of Bray" , but as I told him there was a lot of difference in Country Gardens and Vicar of Bray, as much as chalk and cheese are.

Old woman if you please
Will you come along with me
Into my fine country gardens.

Not much like the Vicar of Bray is it?

It is probable that the ECG words were retro-fitted in the 20th century

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 05 Dec 07 - 11:22 AM

That bit of Ken Russell's film Delius where Grainger comes to visit him, is a thing of great beauty.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: GUEST,GREGS GREATS 78s
Date: 19 Oct 08 - 07:36 PM

William Kimber (or "Merry" Kimber as my father knew him) was an english concertina player for the Headington Quarry Morris Men at the turn of the last century (The Headington Quarry Morris Men still dance every May Day on Magdalene Bridge in Oxford).

There is an interview on tape with the BBC that was broadcast on the BBC Home Service in the early 1960's where he recounts how Cecil Sharp came to visit William Kimber to note down the Headington Morris dance tunes including Shepherds Hey and Country Gardens. Percy Grainger stole the tunes and claimed full writing credits for both which he can be heard playing on his 1929 Columbia 78 cat no D 1664 although all he actually did was re-arrange them for piano (which in my opinion he played badly).

The "Words" and the word "English" was added at a much later date - This is a tradition morris dance tune going back probably 200 years or more.

Much later William Kimber himself recorded the original tune on his concertina for HMV - although by that time he was playing it much much fater than he would have if he were actually playing for dancers!!

Christine Kimber, his Grand Daughter, taught us Country Dancing when I was a child growing up in an Oxfordshire Village - ah happy days....

Subject: Lyr Add: ENGLISH ROYAL FAMILY (parody)
From: Jim McLean
Date: 20 Oct 08 - 04:50 AM

I wrote this in 1965/6 for an LP of Scottish Republican Songs recorded by Nigel Denver.

How many more did we have in Sixty-four
Of the English Royal family
The Queen she had four, with expenses for a score
Of the English Royal family
Margaret is doing her best trying to keep up with the rest
Did she have a little girl or boy
Did Viscount Linley have a brother? Does it matter? It's another
Of the English Royal family

Marina - time to change Marina ...

The Duke of Kent believed that his wife should conceive
For the English Royal family
So out in Hongkong they increased the merry throng
Of the English Royal family
But up in Scotland there's the rub, guess who joined the puddin' club
Princess Alexandra
So princes, dukes and peers as well help to increase and to swell
The English Royal family

Oysters - don't forget the oysters ...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: GUEST
Date: 17 Apr 14 - 10:41 AM

What do you do if you haven't got a loo
in an English Country Garden?
You pull down your pants and you suffocate the ants
in an English Country Garden.
You pluck a leaf and wipe your underneath
in an English Country Garden.
You take a spade and you cover what you've made
in an English Country Garden.
Or roll it in a ball and throw it o'er the wall
in an English Country Garden.
And that's what you do if you haven't got a loo
in an English Country Garden.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: Tradsinger
Date: 17 Apr 14 - 02:10 PM

The Internet, which of course never lies, says that Robert M.Jordan wrote the lyrics in 1958. Does anyone know anything about Jordan? No words were collected with the Morris version. Were there any words with the C18 version?

Tradsinger

PS - love the parodies

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: Snuffy
Date: 24 Apr 14 - 09:31 AM

Songs from CJS Field Notes

COUNTRY GARDENS

Old woman if you please
Will you come along with me
Into my fine country gardens
(Kimber Apr 28. 1907)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: GUEST,Herb Helbig
Date: 18 Jul 21 - 10:54 AM

Does anyone know a version that starts
In country gardens
On moonlit nights
....

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 19 Jul 21 - 07:13 AM

Robert M Jordan? Presumably American as you’re never likely to find a bluebird in an English country garden. They’re a species confined to the Americas ..... and, of course, the white cliffs of Dover!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: leeneia
Date: 19 Jul 21 - 09:42 PM

Maybe you aren't lucky enough to have bluebirds, but surely you have blue birds. The blue tit comes to mind.

This video gives the tune that I have always known as 'Country Gardens.'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiZzpRME_DY

When I try to match the lyrics given here to it, they don't seem to fit well. Are there two tunes by this name?
====================
I remember a version from the 50's that started:

I never knew I'd fall in love with you
on a pleasing Sunday afternoon.

That's all I can remember. I believe it was a duo, and the woman had the most irritating, bright and chipper voice. I never listened long, but now I think that with a different singer it might be a charming little song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 20 Jul 21 - 04:02 AM

“Ther’ll be bluetits over, the white cliffs of Dover”!

Pity bluetits are mainly yellow!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: GUEST,Henry Piper (of Ottery )
Date: 20 Jul 21 - 05:03 AM

Leeneia   There are at least five or six variations and possibly more on the Morris tune "Country Gardens" Each village that sustained a Morris dancing side had its own version of the tune or even a different tune for the Dance of that name, which varied according to the dancing style of the side, and the memory of the musicians(s) who played for them,.....village sides often had to "borrow" musicians from each other, and were quite used to dancing to slightly different versions of their tunes.
The version arranged by Percy Grainger was from the village of Headington Quarry as Collected by Cecil Sharp from the playing of William Kimber the sides musician at the time.
It is not exactly as Kimber played it and his playing varied Subtly over later years including speeding up enormously almost to the point of being undanceable !!
At the time of collection no words were associated with the Morris tune and all subsequent "Pop" versions seem to have originated with Jimmie Rogers in the "Sixties" .

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: clueless don
Date: 20 Jul 21 - 06:35 AM

I didn't notice if anyone had already pointed out that Allan Sherman (perhaps best known for his parody "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah") did a parody of English Country Garden. He called it "Here's to the crabgrass". The first few lines (from memory) were

Here's to the crabgrass
Here's to the mortgage
in fact, here's to
suburb-i-a.

Lay down your briefcase
far from the rat race
where nothing can disturb
i-ya.

Don

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: English Country Garden
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 20 Jul 21 - 07:30 AM

There was a spoof version of which I can recall but one line.

How many crows can you pick from your nose
in an English country garden