Lyr Req: A Smuggler's Song (Rudyard Kipling)

Subject: four and twenty horses - HELP
From: Betsy
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 12:46 PM

Can't remember the words - the last line of the chorus goes something like " as the gentlemen ride by".

4 & 20 horses riding though dark
( Something ) .........................
( Something )letters???...... for a lady
( Something )baccy ???...... for a clerk
Watch them all my darling as the gentlemen ride by .
Maddening thing is I know the tune OK - can anyone help me.???

Subject: RE: four and twenty horses
From: Leadfingers
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 12:50 PM

John Masefield ?? Or am I just diplaying my ignorance ?

Subject: RE: four and twenty horses
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 12:54 PM

Kipling, The Smuggler's Song.

See this thread, which has links to previous threads. A search by "four and twenty horses" got there (though I knew the thread existed).

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: Lyr Add: THE BLACK-SOIL TEAMS (E. J, Brady)
From: Amos
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 12:59 PM

I know this isn't the one you were looking for, but it is a lovely piece of Austrine verse by E.J, Brady, around 1910 or so:

For God hath made the Black-soil; and spread it near and far,
From down the sweeping Namoi bends, away to Talbragar:
Its richness no man questions, its wealth no man denies,
But Sheol 'tis in rain time; and Tophet when it dries.

The drought hath cracked and torn it; the rain hath lent it seams.
God help the Black-soil teamster! God help the Black-soil teams!
God grace the toiling teamster! God give him strength and hope!
Spare swingle-bars and traces, spare curses, chains and rope!

A-ploughing down the gilgas — the mud as close as glue —
A-plunging past the myall, the squatter's wool goes through!
A-plunging through the gilgas, a-ploughing up the track,
With four and twenty horses, the squatter's stores come back.

New saddles for the stockmen, new dresses for the girls —
And round the straining leader the wicked whipthong curls.
Their flanks are all a-lather, the black mud axle-high,
But trust the Black-soil teamster; he'll take her through or die.

Who sees the trace-chains snapping, who sees the harness fly,
May kneel and pray for weather; may kneel and ask it dry.
But when the starved team staggers across a sun-scorched plain,
He'll change his plea, mayhappen and kneel and pray for rain.

But rain or draught, whatever, all flood or dry reverse,
The teamster's duty's patent — Pull out, pull through and curse.
Ay, pull her down the rivers: drag through the clinging loam,
Then turn-about, my brother, curse hard, and crawl her home!

God grant him grace hereafter; of grace, aye hath he dearth, —
Though fearing no hereafter — whose Hell is all on Earth.
Sun-tanned, mud-caked and hairy; morose and most profane,
God grace the Lean Lost Legion who plod the Black-soil plain!

A.

Subject: Lyr Add: A SMUGGLER'S SONG (Rudyard Kipling)
From: Betsy
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 01:54 PM

You clever people - part of an amazing Site and truly a Font of knowledge .
Desert Dancer / Becky got it - from rubbish info. I provided - I never even got the number right !!!
To save you going where Desert Dancer sent me I've copied to here.
Also thank you Amos and Lead fingers for your help - and even Becky has learned something - FIVE - and Twenty, and, I'd better not forget to thank Bullfrog Jones
Good Luck.


Subject: Add: Five and Twenty Ponies
From: Bullfrog Jones - PM
Date: 22 Mar 02 - 11:38 AM
In The Mudcat Shop: A PRESENT FROM THE GENTLEMEN , The Wall

It's by Rudyard Kipling..

A SMUGGLER'S SONG
(Rudyard Kipling)

If you wake at midnight, and hear a horse's feet
Don't go drawing back the blinds, or looking in the street
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie
Watch the wall my darling when the gentlemen go by.

CHORUS:
Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark
Brandy for the parson, baccy for the clerk
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy
And watch the wall my darling, while the gentlemen go by.

Running round the woodlump if you chance to find
Little barrel, roped and tarred, all full of brandy-wine
Don't shout to come and look, nor use 'em for your play
Put the brushwood back again – they'll be gone next day.
Chorus:

If you see the stable door setting open wide;
If you see a tired horse lying down inside;
If your mother mends a coat cut about and tore;
If the lining's wet and warm – don't you ask no more!
Chorus:

If you met King George's men, dressed in blue and red,
You be careful what you say, and mindful what is said.
If they call you, "Pretty maid", and chuck you 'neath the chin
Don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no ones been.
Chorus:

Knocks and footsteps round the house – whistles after dark
You've no call for running out till the house dogs bark
Trusty's here, and Pincher's here, and see how dumb the lie
They don't fret to follow when the gentlemen go by!
Chorus:

If you do as you've been told, likely there's a chance
You'll be give a dainty doll, all the way from France
With a cap of Valenciennes and a velvet hood
A present from the gentlemen, along 'o being good.

Chorus:
Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark
Brandy for the parson, baccy for the clerk
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie
Watch the wall my darling when the gentlemen go by.

Subject: RE: four and twenty horses
From: Grampus
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 02:11 PM

There is an excellent version of this on the New Scorpion Band's Latest CD 'The Downfall of Pears'. NSB 03. Highly recommended.

www.new-scorpion-band.com

(the blue clicky won't work for me, but the site name IS correct!)

G.

Subject: RE: four and twenty horses
From: Betsy
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 03:05 PM

Grampus ,
Honestly ,honestly , honestly - I have got a CD to my name, apart from one or two I 've had given - and I haven't got a player.
I've still got a record player with a 2 cassette thingies - maybe I'll have to invest !!!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: four and twenty horses
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 01 May 04 - 02:48 PM

This is Big Jim's sister, Doss: Betsy, if you have never read Kipling's "Puck of Pook's Hill," vol 1, let me suggest it.

This poem is found in the part called "Hal O' the Draft," which is an fascinating story about smugglers, how they lived, and how they were seen by the local village populations of the time. The poem is a brilliant ending to the story of Hal and his smuggling ways...and wares.

Kipling's poems are nearly always SO rhythmical that I've often thought t'would be fairly easy to work out tunes to so many of his great poems.

Salutations to you.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: four and twenty horses
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 01 May 04 - 10:26 PM

Hey Big Jim,

Check out Naulakha Redux, Songs of Rudyard Kipling, by John Roberts & Tony Barrand (Golden Hind Music GHM 104). Go to Golden Hind Music, click on "Products" and scroll down to that recording. The full cd notes (and lyrics, but no midis) are available under "more information".

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Smuggler's Song (Rudyard Kipling)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 07:57 PM

This is the song for January 15 on Jon Boden's A Folk Song a Day. Project. To my mind, there's no recording better than the one by Cindy Mangsen on her Songlines CD. But hey, I'm prejudiced. I think Cindy Mangsen is the perfect folksinger, none better.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Smuggler's Song (Rudyard Kipling)
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 08:14 PM

In Flanders & Swann's song "Bedstead Men" (on _At the Drop of Another Hat_) there is a line "So watch the wall, my darling, while the bedstead men go by", which clearly alludes to "A Smuggler's Song". They break into another tune when they sing it, and the audience laughs, which strongly suggests that they are quoting a tune that is (or was, ca. 1960) well established in Britain. It isn't the one on _A Folk Song a Day_.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Smuggler's Song (Rudyard Kipling)
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 14 Jan 11 - 08:24 PM

I've got an old recording of Peter Dawson singing it credited to Kipling-Mortimer. Naturally, you can find it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZmO3oRsSoU

Cracking stuff!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Smuggler's Song (Rudyard Kipling)
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 01:53 PM

Many will doubtless recall that Peter Bellamy set this poem to the tune of The White Cockade on Merlin's Isle Of Gramarye (Argo, 1972).

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Smuggler's Song (Rudyard Kipling)
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 02:15 PM

I suspect that's the vesion most people here are familiar with, MtheGM - be it from PB or countkless others who've covered it down the years. I find Peter Dawson's ante-folk performance equally heartening in terms of cultural history, though I doubt many would adopt this approach in this day & age. Catchy though!

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: A Smuggler's Song (Rudyard Kipling)
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 15 Jan 11 - 03:03 PM

PS - Lots of versions on YouTube, all of which seem to be further variants of Bellamy's subversion of The White Cockade.