> Shirley Collins > Songs > Cambridgeshire May Carol

Cambridgeshire May Carol

[ Roud 305 ; Ballad Index JRSF238 ; VWML RVW2/1/39 ; trad.]

Jean Ritchie: Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians

Jean Ritchie sang the Cambridge May Song in 1959 on her Tradition album Carols of All Seasons. She noted:

In Stratford-Upon-Avon, in England in 1953, Mr. Russell Wortley sang for me this lovely carol. It has been sung for centuries by young men and girls in Cambridgeshire on May Day mornings. The ‘may’, green boughs and spring flowers, is gathered the night before, or very early on May Day Morning, and carried by the group from house to house throughout the village. At each cottage, the song is sung, the ‘may’ is hung over the door (to insure prosperity, health and good farm yields for the coming year), the carollers pass their money-box and walk along to the next house. This song has doubtless been well published in England; I confess I don’t know where. I sing it for you here as I heard it from Russell Wortley.

She also sang The May Day Carol in 2005 on the ‘American’ CD of Fellside’s anthology celebrating English traditional songs and their American variants, Song Links 2. Paul Adams noted:

Although there is little evidence of the English May Day customs surviving in America, this song turns up in Kentucky. Jean Ritchie writes in her book Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians and where the song is printed:

“The Ritchies were singing The May Day Carol before I was born, so it seems to me to have been always ours. My older sisters learned it while they were in school at Pine Mountain at the Settlement School there. In Kentucky we children used to make May baskets with flowers and greenery gathered in the woods, and we would leave them at our friends’ doors, but we didn’t dare linger to sing for fear we’d be recognised (and the fun was to guess who made each basket). So we sang the carol on any soft spring evening.”

Mary Humphreys and Anahata sang the Cambridge May Song in 2004 on their WildGoose album Floating Verses. Mary Humphreys noted:

This song was collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1907 from Fowlmere resident ‘Hoppy’ Flack [VWML RVW2/1/39] . He was one of the longest-serving members of a band of May carollers which visited the cottages in the villages of Thriplow and Fowlmere collecting money and ale on May eve. Hoppy related to RVW that one May eve having been given so much to drink during the proceedings, he fell into a ditch and couldn’t get out again. His companion, loth to lose the money they would collect carried on without him and Hoppy lay in the ditch until day listening to the song as it went further into the distance.

The words attached to the text had a very gloomy turn to them and seem to have departed considerably from their pagan origins. I have gone to other May carols, particularly the neighbouring Bedfordshire one, and ‘borrowed’ some verses. It becomes a much more celebratory song without the threat of Hell and Damnation.

They sang their May Day Carol in 2005 on the ‘English’ CD of Fellside’s anthology celebrating English traditional songs and their American variants, Song Links 2. Paul Adams noted:

May 1^st has for centuries been an important day in the life of country people. The age-old, even pagan, custom of the laying of branches of may outside the doors of houses, singing May Carols, and collecting money, still persists in some parts of the country. In Amersham, in Buckinghamshire, in 1954, Séamus Ennis, while working as a collector for the BBC, found this rather more realistic version that takes into account the vagaries of English weather…

Today today is the first of May the springtime of the year
We have come round unto your doors to taste of your strong beer

And if you haven’t got any strong we’ll be content with small
And take the goodwill of your house and turn God’s thanks to all

A branch of May we haven’t brought you for there is none about
So we will do the best we can and try to do without

Mary Humphreys’ version is a collation of The Cambridgeshire May Song and The Bedfordshire May Song. [Her notes quoted here are basically the same as on the album listed above.]

They also sang the Cambridge May Garland Song on their 2012 album A Baker’s Dozen. Mary Humphreys noted:

A version of this song is sung by the band of Northstow Mummers, of which we are members. Our merry band takes a May garland around Cambridge city centre every May Day. The song originates from the north of Cambridgeshire but there are many photographs of children taking May garlands around the local villages during the last century. As in all good traditional customs such as souling and molly dancing there is a reference to collecting money somewhere in the song.

Belbury Poly sang the Cambridgeshire May Carol in 2015 on Earth Records’ anthology celebrating Shirley Collins, Shirley Inspired….

Lyrics

Shirley Collins sings the Cambridgeshire May Carol

Arise, arise, you pretty fair maids,
And take your May bush in,
For if that is gone before tomorrow morn
You would say we had brought you none.

O the hedges and fields are growing so green,
As green as grass can be;
Our heavenly father watereth them
With his heavenly dew so sweet.

I have got a little purse in my pocket
That’s tied with a silken string;
And all that it lacks is a little of your gold
To line it well within.

Now the clock strikes one, it’s time we are gone,
We can no longer stay;
So please to remember our money, money box
And God send you a joyful May.

Mary Humphreys and Anahata sing the May Day Carol

O I’ve been a-rambling all the night
And the first part of the day
And now I am returning home
I’ve brought you a branch of may.

A branch of may, my dear, I say
Before your door it stands
Tis nothing but a sprout, but it’s well budded out
By the work of our Lord’s hand.

Go take your bible in your hand
And read a chapter through
And when the day of judgement comes
The Lord will think on you.

And when I’m dead and in my grave
And covered with cold clay
The nightingale will come and sing
And pass the time away.

Go down to your kitchen and get me a cup
A cup of your good cheer
And if I live to tarry in the town
I’ll call on you next year.

The hedges and fields they are so green
So green as any leaf
Our heavenly father waters them
With his heavenly dew so sweet.

I have a bag on my right arm
Tied with a silken string
Nothing that it wants but a little silver
To line it well within.

And now my song ’tis almost done
No longer can I stay
God bless you all both great and small
And bring you a joyful May.

Jean Ritchie sings the May Day Carol

I’ve been a-wandering all the night
And the best part of the day
Now I’m returning home again
I will bring you a branch of may.

A branch of may I will bring you, my love
Here at your door I stand
It’s nothing but a sprout, but it’s well budded out
By the work of the Lord’s own hand.

In my pocket I hold a purse
Tied up with a silver string
All that I do lack is a little silver
To line it well within.

My song is done and I must be gone
I can no longer stay
God bless you all, both great and small
And send you a joyful May.