Down by the Green Bushes
Collected by Bob Copper in about 1954 from a book left by John Johnson (right), 1865-1943, in Fittleworth, Sussex: see Chapter Nine, pp. 83-9, of Songs and Southern Breezes for the details; and the appendix for these words. The photo of John Johnson at his garden date is credited to George Garland of Petworth (West Sussex). Click on the photo for a much larger one (also by George Garland, and which might have been taken around 1940) of John Johnson and his wife on their golden wedding anniversary.
It was early one morning I chanced for to stray
For to hear the birds whistle and see young lambs play.
There I met a fair damsel, how sweetly sang she
Down by the green bushes where she thinks to meet me.I will buy you fine beavers and a fine, silken gown
And a fine, silken petticoat flounced down to the ground
If you'll forsake your own true-love and gang along with me
Down by the green bushes where he thinks to meet me.I want none of your petticoat nor none of your hose,
Do you think I'm so poor I would marry for clothes
But if you will prove constant and loyal to me
I'll forsake my own true-love and gang along with thee.Then let us be a-going, kind sir, if you please,
Come let us be a-going from under these trees,
For yonder is a-coming my true-love I see
Down by the green bushes where he thinks to meet me.And when he had came there and found she was gone
He seemed like some lambkin and cried quite forlorn,
'Saying, She's gone with some other and forsaken me.
Here's adieu to the green bushes for ever, said he.
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