My father had an acre of land
(Heigh-ho, sing ivy)
My father had an acre of land
(With a bunch of green holly and ivy)

He ploughed it with a team of rats
(Heigh-ho, sing ivy)
He ploughed it with a team of rats
(With a bunch of green holly and ivy)

He sowed it with a pepper box
(etc.)

He harrowed it with a small tooth comb

He rolled it with a rolling-pin

He reaped it with the blade of his knife

He wheeled it home in a wheel-barrow

He trashed it with a hazel twig

He wimm'd it on the tail of his shirt

He measured it up with a walnut shell

He sent it to market on a hedgehog's back

He sold the lot for eighteen pence
(Heigh-ho, sing ivy)
He sold the lot for one and six
(With a bunch of green holly and ivy)

And now the poor old man is dead
(Heigh-ho, sing ivy)
And now the poor old man is dead
(With a bunch of green holly and ivy)

We buried him with his team of rats
(Heigh-ho, sing ivy)
And all his tools laid by his side
(With a bunch of green holly and ivy)

abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Folksongs of Britain and Ireland. Edited by Peter Kennedy

Notes:
Recorded by Peter Kennedy from Bob and Ron Copper, Sussex (1955)

Kennedy comments:
Although a farm song in its own right, this certainly seems to owe its origin to the second section of the old classical ballad The Elfin Knight (No. 2 in Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads)

Roud: 12 (Search Roud index at VWML) Take Six
Laws:
Child: 2

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Related Songs:  Scarborough Fair (thematic) The Lovers' Tasks (thematic)