All around my hat

AKA All round my hat
The Green Willow
First published 1834
Writer/composer John Hansell/John Valentine Roud RN22518

Music Hall performers Jack Reeve, Billy Williams
Folk performances Peter Bellamy 1969
Steeleye Span 1975-
Brian Peters 2003		 

Twas going of my rounds, in the street I first did meet her,
I thought she was an angel, just come down from the sky,
And I never heard a voice, more louder and more sweeter,
When crying “Buy my primroses, my primroses come buy”

All around my hat, I will wear a green willow
All around my hat for a twelve month and a day
And if anyone should ask, the reason why I'm a-wearing it
Tell them that my true love is far,far away.

My love she was fair, and my love she was kind
But cruel was the judge that had my love to try
For thieving was a thing that she never was inclined to
But he sent my love across the seas far, far away.

For seven long years my love and I are parted
For seven long years my love is bound to stay
Bad luck to the chap who could ever be false-hearted
I'll love my love forever, though she's far, far away.

There is some young men, so preciously deceitful
A coaxing of the young gals, they mean to lead astray
As soon as they deceive them, so cruelly they leave them
They never sighs no sorrows, when they're far, far away.

I bought my love a golden ring the very day she started
A token of our own true love, all to remember me
And when she comes back, we never will be parted
We'll marry and be happy forever and a day.

A song with a complex history, but going backwards…

Most will know the song as sung by Steeleye Span, who had a big hit with it in 1975. They in turn may have got the chorus from the singing of Peter Bellamy, though they combine it with verses from elsewhere – not the ones above. Brian Peters also did an excellent version in the early 2000s.

The records in VWML show that a song with this chorus and broadly similar verses has been widely collected from English source singers from the late 19th century on. In the 19th century it featured in dozens of broadsheets and songbooks , going back to the 1830s (approximately).

In 1834 it was published in the form given above, as written by John Hansell with “melody arranged” by John Valentine. Micheal Kilgarriff, the great archivist of Victorian and Edwardian song, describes it as a parody of a traditional song. Kilgarriff may be referring to the song usually called The Nobleman’s Wedding (RN567).

The 1830s version given above has been transformed into a Coster song, a style extremely popular in the tavern singing rooms and early Music Halls of the 1830s and 40s. There are elements of burlesque – it appears to have been sung by performers dressed in costermonger costume, singing in the “Mockney” of the time and accompanied with humorous asides about vegetables (usefully included in the original sheet music if you want to perform it that way).

Charles Rice in his diaries of 1840 describes a performer called Billy Williams singing it to great acclaim (not to be confused with the much later Billy Williams born in the late 19th century in Australia, successful in the Halls of the early 20th century). The sheet music suggests it was performed by Jack Reeve, who published a number of comic songbooks in the 1830s and was clearly a performer who enjoyed some success in London.

John “Jack” Reeve was a well-known comic actor who appeared regularly in burlesques in London theatres in the 1830s. He came from a respectable middle-class family, abandoning a career in banking to take up acting. He became well-known, perhaps notorious, in the free-and-easies and private theatres of the capital, but he began his career by spending two years as a strolling actor in the “provinces”. In 1835 he travelled to America to appear to some acclaim in theatres there, returning in 1836 to continue his career in England. Sadly he died in 1838.

Sources:

Brian Peters live, a version can be heard on his CD Different Tongues