It’s the only bit of English that we’ve got

AKAThe only bit of England
Poor old England
First Published1907

Writer/composerHarry Castling and Fred GodfreyRoudRN24195

Music Hall PerformersBilly Williams
Folk performancesCollected from the singing of:
Costello, Cecilia; England: Warwickshire: 1967
Reader, Lucy; England: Gloucestershire; 1996
Why, the Briton used to boast his homestead was his castle grand 
Until the foreigner came here and swamped this happy land. 
He worked his way into our midst and captured all the trade, 
So ev'rything we use now seems to be all foreign-made.

Poor old England isn’t in the picture
Everything is foreign, you’ll agree.
The table and the chairs,
The carpet on the stairs,
Are made in Germany.
But when I go out in the garden,
Growing in a tiny plot,
Is a pretty little rose
That in the garden grows.
It’s the only bit of English that we’ve got!

When we cut some bread and butter, it's all foreign you'll agree.
Why, the flour comes from Russia, and the knife from Germany.
Our butter comes from Holland, and our new-laid eggs from France. 
Our tea we get from China, so we don't stand half a chance.

This nationalistic song was written by Fred Godfrey and Harry Castling , who sold the performing rights to  Billy Williams for 3 guineas. It’s unusual to know the exact price but we can thank the diligent researches of fredgodfreysongs.ca where you can read a much fuller discussion of the history of this song.

The song has been collected twice from traditional singers in England, Cecilia Costello sings a variant on the chorus in this fragment downloaded from the Vaughan Williams Memorial library:

Cecelia Costello sings a variant on the original chorus, from Musical Traditions recording available from VWML

.

Billy Williams sings it in 1906:

Sources:

Last Updated on November 23, 2022 by John Baxter | Published: November 23, 2022

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