> Folk Music > Songs > Through the Groves

The Chain of Love / Through the Groves

[ Roud 607 ; Master title: The Chain of Love ; Ballad Index ReCi076 ; VWML GG/1/12/746 ; Mudcat 51748 ; trad.]

Nick Dow: Southern Songster James Reeves: The Everlasting Circle

George ‘Pop’ Maynard sang Through the Groves at The Cherry Tree in Copthorne, Sussex to Brian Matthews in 1961. This recording was included in 2000 on his Musical Traditions anthology Down the Cherry Tree.

Holly Clarke and George Sansome sang Through the Groves live at Our House Studios, Leeds in January 2026. The version they sang was collected by George Gardiner from Daniel Wigg, aged 83, of Preston Candover, Hampshire in July 1907 [VWML GG/1/12/746] .

Lyrics

Pop Maynard sing Through the Groves

Through the groves as I was walking
Early on one summer morn,
There I beheld the most fair pretty damsel
Lamenting for her shepherd boy. (×2)

Dearest Annie, shall I ever see you again,
Sweet lass, I fear?
For I’m going to fight the French and Spaniard,
Canst thou spare me thus my dear? (×2)

Never more to the banks shall I take me.
Isn’t it a pleasure for to see those lambs,
So charming and so innocent,
Sporting by their fleecy dams. (×2)

Holly Clarke and George Sansome sing Through the Groves

’Twas through the groves I took my way
One morning by the break of the day,
There I heard a fair maid sing,
The lad I love is gone astray. (×2)

O hark; O hark, what voice I hear,
I think it is my dearest dear.
If I had wings I would fly to him,
To see what the power of love could bring. (×2)

If I had a lock fixed to my breast
I’d keep it locked while life did last,
with a golden lock and a silver key,
To keep my heart from going astray.%rdquo; (×2)

O’er hills and dales and shady rocks,
Where shepherds do attend their flocks,
I’ll range the dales and the valleys low,
If they were covered all with snow. (×2)

On banks of lilies I lay my head;
The heavens above shall be my comrade,
There I’ll lay until the break of day,
The harmless lambs shall around me play. (×2)