Author Topic: Add: Ground for the Floor

dmcg

 Posted - 26 May 07 - 06:57 am
I've lived in a wood for a number of years,
With my dog and my gun I drive away all cares;
I've a neat little ottage, and the roof it is secure,
If you look down below you'll find ground for the floor.

My cot it is surrounded with bramble and thorn,
And sweet are the notes of the birds in the morn;
I've a guinea in my pocket and plenty more in store,
If you look down below you'll find ground for the floor.

My bed's made of straw my limbs to repose
And as for myself I've but one suit of clothes;
And that's made of tickin, all stiched up secure,
If you look down below you'll find ground for the floor.

As for grates I've got none, for my fire's on the ground,
And chairs I've got none to set myself down;
I've a three-legged stool, it's the chief of my store,
IN my neat little cottage with ground for the floor.

God bless my dear father, he's dead and he's gone,
I hope he's safe in heaven, where he'll never more return;
He's left me all his riches, and I've plenty more in store,
In my neat little cottage with ground for the floor.

Source:
Broadwood, L, 1893, English County Songs, London, Leadenhall Press

Notes:
LIsted as from Cambridgeshire.

Lucy Broadwood wrote the following (somewhat confusing!) notes to this song:

The Rev. J. B. Healy, of Studley, Ripon, mentioned to Mr H. M. Bower, a fragment of a song formerly very popular among fen shooters from Cambridge. The fragment evidently belongs to the above, although the words and tune come, not from Cambridgeshire, but from Mrs Sligsby, Skipton, Yorkshire.



Malcolm Douglas
 Posted - 27 May 07 - 12:23 am
Appears on various broadsides by London and provincial printers from the early years of the 19th century onward; Evans appears to be the earliest. See Bodleian Library Broadside Ballads:

Ground for the Floor.

This text is very close to broadside forms. Known oral versions are mostly from the southern counties of England. George Maynard had a few additional verses, which seem to have been borrowed from another song on a similar theme, printed variously as 'Content' and 'The Happy Shepherd' (examples are in the Madden Collection, but not, apparently, at the Bodleian).


nutty

 Posted - 15 Jun 07 - 04:39 pm
This song is very reminiscent of THE PROSPECT OF HOPE written by a gentleman called John Collins in the late 1700's

There are a number of broadsides of the song in the Bodleian

one example

This song has been recorded by Bill Whalley and Dave Fletcher


Malcolm Douglas
 Posted - 16 Jun 07 - 12:35 am
There are generic similarities. I think this is a full list of Bodleian holdings; it appears under several names:

In the downhill of life...

Collins' poem appeared in Palgrave's Golden Treasury; Palgrave evidently though it 'truly noble'. Poems and songs celebrating the joys of a simple bucolic life have long been popular in town and country, though they have usually been written by people several generations removed from the particular pleasure of a floor made of compacted soil.

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