Starry night for a ramble, A

AKA Kiss and never tell
The ploughboys song
First Published 1870
Writer/composer Samuel Bagnall Roud RN972

Music Hall Performers Sam Bagnall, Louise Austin, JW Rowley
Folk performances Collected from the singing of:
Beverley, Mr; England : Lincolnshire : 1905
Stroud, Mrs. E.; England : Hampshire; 1905
Fish, Lena Bourne USA : New Hampshire : c1940
Byrnes, Tom; Australia : New South Wales : 1955
Tritton, Duke; Australia : New South Wales : 1955c
Halsey, Bill England : Sussex : 1957 – 60
Leahy, John Canada : Ontario : 1961
Jenkins, Mrs.; Australia 1967
Kydd, Jessie; England : Lincolnshire : 1970
Ford, Amy; England : Somerset : 1974
Train, Bill; England : Devon : 1976
Modern performances
The Beers Family		 

From Hopwood and Crew sheet music (personal collection)

I like a game of croquet or bowling on the green, 
I like a little boating to pull against the stream, 
But of all the games that I love best to fill me with delight,
I like to take a ramble upon a starry night.
 
A starry night for a ramble,
In a flowery dell
Thro' the bush and bramble, 
Kiss and never tell...

Talk about your bathing or strolling on the sands,
Or some unseen verandah where gentle zephyr fans,
Or rolling home in the morning, boys, and very nearly tight.
Could never beat a ramble upon a starry night

I like to take my sweetheart, "Of course you would," said hhe 
And softly whisper in her ear, "How dearly I love you."
And when you picture to yourselves the scenes of such delight,
You'll want to take a ramble upon a starry night.

Some will choose velocipede, and others take a drive,
And some will set and mope at home, half dead dead and half alive,
And some will choose a steam boat, and others even fight,
I'll enjoy a ramble upon a starry night.

Sam Bagnall the one-time Shakespearean comic and prolific songwriter wrote, composed and presumably performed this song in the 1870s, though a variety of lesser known female performers also seem to have sung it at that time, including Louise Austin. It was performed in pantomime at Nottingham in the winter of 1870/71. H Chance Newton recalls that  JW “Over” Rowley regularly performed A starry night in the late 1880s and 1890s. Contemporary newspaper reports also suggest that a song called A starry night was one of Rowley’s most popular numbers and he was regularly expected to encore with the song. However, it’s unclear whether Rowley was singing this song, or another Bagnell song A starry night and a beautiful girl.

 June 19, 1870; The Era 

 Dec. 21, 1870; The Daily Telegraph 

There are hints that the tune became just as popular as the song . It is regularly mentioned in late Victorian fiction, where you can find descriptions of it drifting from barrel organs in fictionalised London, young couples courting as the band played it on a romantic moonlit evening in New York, or played on the piano by ladies of the saloon in romanticised descriptions of the old American South.

The song was widely printed in cheap street literature on both sides of the Atlantic, on sheet music and in several music tutors. It was collected from the singing of a wide range of traditional singers, it seems to have been particularly popular in Australia. Early 20th century collectors like Percy Grainger and Cecil Sharp collected versions of it in England.

You can hear a substantially modernised version of the song as commercially recorded in 1905 by the Hayden Quartet at the library of Congress website and a version collected from the singing of Amy Ford by Bob and Jacqueline Patten on the British Library Sounds site. (Do check out what the folk process does to the unseen verandas where gentle zephyrs fan in the Amy Ford version).

Katie Howson describes how the song has become more widely known as a dance tune on her excellent website. Here is an example of it being played as a contra dance tune by the Paint Creek Country Dance Orchestra:

Sources: