Origins: Travel the Country Round

Subject: RE: Origins: Travel the Country Round
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 Feb 11 - 03:32 PM

Thanks to Google Books, you can now see TRAVEL THE COUNTRY ROUND, in an arrangement for voice and piano, in English Traditional Songs and Carols by Lucy E. Broadwood (London: Boosey & Co., 1908), page 100.

Subject: RE: Origins: travel the country round
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 10:37 AM

I've just had the great pleasure of singing "Travel the country round" in the county where it was collected - in the Lewes Arms last night (on top of the pleasure of drinking the restored Harvey's), and one or two people asked me about it so I'm reviving this thread.

Kitty

Subject: RE: Origins: travel the country round
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 19 Apr 07 - 07:11 PM

A full transcription of Henry's 'Reminiscences' can be seen at  Reminiscences of Horsham

Subject: RE: Origins: travel the country round
From: Surreysinger
Date: 19 Apr 07 - 05:48 PM

Just consulted my copy of Burstow's "Reminiscences of Horsham" out of curiosity,as I was in anorak mode - Travel the Country Round was number 166 of the 420 songs that he listed that he could remember and sing in their entirety. Lucy Broadwood actually published it in her book "English Traditional Songs and Carols" in 1908. Have to say that I've never sung it - although a friend and I did use it as the title for the first show we put on here in Guildford in 2004about Lucy B and the Rev Sabine Baring Gould .... seemed appropriate because both of them did a lot of travelling around while collecting!!!

Subject: RE: Origins: travel the country round
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 05:52 PM

Henry Burstow's set appears to be the only one ever found by folk song collectors. The words appeared on broadsides as 'The Jolly Ranger', 'The Jovial Ranger', and 'The Carpenter's Ramble'; a couple of examples can be seen at  Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

The Jolly Ranger / The Carpenter's Ramble

Subject: RE: Origins: travel the country round
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 05:01 PM

I sing it. I learnt it from "Miss Broadwood's Delight" (Ferret Publications)and it was one of the songs collected from Henry Burstow from Horsham - who, according to the notes for "Miss Broadwood's Delight, said it was the first song he collected from his father's knee. I've never heard anyone else sing it though.

Because I live in London, I can only sing it in other places, and I actually learnt it to sing at a booking at Readifolk, because there aren't many traditional songs about prospering in and enjoying Reading!

Kitty

Subject: Origins: travel the country round
From: slyoldfox
Date: 18 Apr 07 - 04:13 PM

Came across this song on contemplator

I am a jovial ranger,
I fear no kind of danger,
To sorrow I'm a stranger,
And so let mirth abound.
I once had a fit of loving,
But, that contrary proving,
It set my mind a-roving
To travel the country round!

When first of all I started,
From all my friends I parted,
All almost broken hearted,
Alas! what grief I found!
Till London had fairly touched me,
No part of comfort reached me,
The devil had surely bewitched me
To travel the country round!

When up to London I wandered
A deal of money I squandered,
I masters tried a hundred,
No work was to be found.
And as I wandered up and down,
Some called me "a fool,"
    some "country clown,"
And bade me get out of their fine town
To travel the country round!

Now I grew quite dejected,
As well might be expected,
Myself I then directed
To Reading, and was "bound."
As soon as I had arrived there,
Some work for me was contrived there,
And I for awhile was depriv'd there,
From trav'lling the country round!

Six months, or more, I tarried,
Till of Reading I grew wearied,
My roaming fancy fired
To see some other town.
To Oxford then I hasted,
A week or more I wasted,
As long as my money lasted
I travelled the country round.

So now in Oxford my station;
And here, to my vexation,
A foolish new temptation
To rest awhile I found.
A maid I met so pretty,
So good, so wise, so witty,
I thought it were surely a pity
To travel the country round.

Now I the case must alter,
For fear that I should falter,
And be led in a halter
To church (a dismal sound!)
I made a resolution,
Which I put in execution,
It suited my constitution
To travel the country round.

So now at home I'm seated,
My travels are all completed,
These words I have repeated,
So awhile I'll sit me down;
Quite cured of all my moving,
As well as of all my loving,
I'll go no more a roving
To travel the country round.

with additional info
This ballad was collected by Lucy Broadwood in Sussex in 1893. It appears in her collection English Traditional Songs and Carols (1908).

Does anyone have more information on this piece