{"id":4321,"date":"2020-07-16T17:29:03","date_gmt":"2020-07-16T17:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/?page_id=4321"},"modified":"2020-10-22T18:59:19","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T18:59:19","slug":"harvest-home-the","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/folksongandmusichall.com\/index.php\/harvest-home-the\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvest Home, The"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
AKA<\/strong><\/td>Welcome the harvest home<\/td><\/tr>
First Published<\/td> 1819-1844<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lyrics<\/strong><\/td>??<\/td>Music<\/strong><\/td>??<\/td>Roud<\/strong><\/td>RN1294<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Music Hall Performers<\/strong><\/td>Harry Fox<\/td><\/tr>
Folk performances<\/strong><\/td>Source Singers<\/strong>
F Harrington, 1890 to 1900, Hampshire England
Samuel Willett, 1891, Sussex England
David Sawyer, no date Wiltshire England
James Kelly, 1908 London England<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Oh, come let us see how your liquors be \nFill up your glass and drink to each lass\nAnd gently jog her on your knee\nTwill make her the kinder grow\n\nFor we are the lads with a hey-down-derry\nDrinking ale as brown as a berry, \nAnd the good strong beer will drown dull care, \nAnd welcome the harvest home, Harvest home\nAnd welcome the harvest home\n<\/em>\nNow Jack and Sue came tumbling in\nWith the big Brown jug, so neat and trim.\nAnd now John Barleycorn is in,\nWhy let us be merry, merry be.\n\nNow Jack and Sue proposed a dance, \nIt was agreed upon by chance, \nThat they should have it on the grass, \nAnd the fiddler should play them a tune.\nThen every lad took forth his lass,\nAnd gently led her on the grass,\nWhile around went his tail, \nLike a wind mill sail\nTo welcome the harvest home\n\nNow before the last dance was done, \nThou art out\" says Dick \"Thou art a liar\" says John\n\"The fiddler played it wrong\" says Tom \n\"So we'll have it over again\"\nThen every lad took forth his lass,\nAnd gently led her on the grass,\nWhile around went his tail,\nLike a wind mill sail\nTo welcome the harvest home<\/pre>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
There are many, many songs about harvest home. This one may have been written in the early 19th century before the Halls began, or it is just about possible that it was written by\/for Harry Fox who was certainly performing it around 1860 when the Diprose Song book was 1st published. However, it’s also possible that Fox had been singing it much longer as his career started in 1840 or before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A potentially earlier version appears on a broadsheet with an estimated publication date between 1819 and 1844 (Bod12041<\/a>, Roud V16286), it has slight differences to the “Diprose” version but is essentially the same song.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That said it is very possible that it is a much older song, so on balance this is probably worth classifying as a song that existed before the Halls :one of the folksongs sung in the early Music Hall. It was collected by many of the well-known late 19th-century and early 20th century collectors: Cecil Sharpe, Lucy Broadwood, George Gardiner, and Alfred Williams. As far as I can see they took it at face value as a folksong from the oral tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We do know that it was sung in the early music halls by Harry Fox (1817-1876), known as The Warbling Waggoner<\/em>. Fox was one of the Society of Singers described in Charles Rice’s diary of 1840. Rice describes a group of professional and semiprofessional singers who sang in the singing rooms of taverns, and the very early music halls. Fox went on to be an agent and to chair proceedings at a number of venues including The Casino<\/em> in Manchester. In 1852 he took up the positions of chair at the famous Middlesex Music Hall<\/em>,  Drury Lane, London – a position which he held very successfully until his death in 1876.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n