The Lads that Follow the Plough

Bob Lewis: On Autumn Harvest ah09: Bob Lewis - Drive Sorrows Away and also on ah08: Old Songs & Bothy Ballads: There's Bound to be a Row. Recorded at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival May 2009.

A west country song in praise of the ox ploughing - and often called The Oxen Ploughing. Bob spent some time in Devon and Cornwall and heard this from a friend who lived on Bodmin Moor who used to sing it at the Wadebridge folk club when Meryyn Vincent and Charlie Bate used to go back in the 1960s. Baring Gould included a version in his Songs and Ballads of the West (1889-1891).

Come along little ploughboy it's awaken in the morn,
The cock upon the dunghill is a-blowing of his horn
The sun above the spinney his golden face does show,
Therefore hasten to the linny of the oxen to the plough.
With my hump along, jump along, here drives ma lad along,
Purty, Sparkle, Berry, Goodluck, Speedwell, Cherry,
We are the lads that can follow the plough,
Oh we are the lads that can follow the plough.

In the heat of the daytime there is little we can do,
We'll lie beside the oxen for an hour or for two;
On the banks of sweet violets I'll take ma noontide rest,
And it's I can kiss a pretty girl as hearty as the best.

When the sun it is setting and shadows fills the vale,
Our throttles we'll be wetting with the farmer's humming ale;
Our oxen home returnin we'll guide into the stall,
Where the logs and turves are burnin we'll be merry ploughboys all.

Now the farmer must have seeds or I swear he cannot sow,
The miller with his mill wheel is an idle man also;
The huntsman gives up huntin and the tradesman stands aside,
And the poorman's bread is wanting so we do for all provide.

And now that my song is almost at an end,
I hope the little ploughboy will never lack a friend;
Here's a health to the ploughboy and also to the farmer,
Good health to the farmer and God save the King.
With my hump along, jump along, here drives ma lad along,
Purty, Sparkle, Berry, Goodluck, Speedwell, Cherry,
We are the lads that can follow the plough,
Oh we are the lads that can follow the plough.

c p 2010 Autumn Harvest : www.springthyme.co.uk