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Title: Suffolk Harvest-Home Song
Author: Anonymous (Poetry's author) [
More Titles by Anonymous (Poetry's author)]
[In no part of England are the harvest-homes kept up with greater spirit than in Suffolk. The following old song is a general favourite on such occasions.]
Here's a health unto our master,
The founder of the feast!
I wish, with all my heart and soul,
In heaven he may find rest.
I hope all things may prosper,
That ever be takes in hand;
For we are all his servants,
And all at his command.
Drink, boys, drink, and see you do not spill,
For if you do, you must drink two,--it is your master's will.
Now our harvest is ended,
And supper is past;
Here's our mistress' good health,
In a full flowing glass!
She is a good woman, -
She prepared us good cheer;
Come, all my brave boys,
And drink off your beer.
Drink, my boys, drink till you come unto me,
The longer we sit, my boys, the merrier shall we be!
In yon green wood there lies an old fox,
Close by his den you may catch him, or no;
Ten thousand to one you catch him, or no.
His beard and his brush are all of one colour, -
[Takes the glass and empties it off.
I am sorry, kind sir, that your glass is no fuller.
'Tis down the red lane! 'tis down the red lane!
So merrily hunt the fox down the red lane! {1}
Footnote:
{1} There is another version of these concluding lines:-
'Down the red lane there lives an old fox,
There does he sit a-mumping his chops;
Catch him, boys, catch him, catch if you can;
'Tis twenty to one if you catch him or Nan.'
[The end]
Anonymous's poem: Suffolk Harvest-Home Song
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