My London Country Lane
First Published | 1900 |
Writer/composer | Edgar Bateman / Albert Perry | Roud | RN32453 |
Music Hall Performers | Alec Hurley |
Folk performances | Collected from the singing of: Charles Keeping and family; England : London; 1930s |
Now I have to live in London, bricks and mortar ev'rywhere And there's miles of streets whichever way you turn What with traffic and the crowdedness and smoke what's in the air For a taste of country life I often yearn So in the summer mornings from my domicile I roll The moment that the sun shines on the pane And although it's only make believe, I has a quiet stroll Just a little country walk down Drury Lane. Oh, I loves to take a ramble down my London country lane And ev'ry time I has the chance I'm going there again Though there ain't no ploughs and harrows And the larks is mainly sparrers Still it's painted up and sez so - it's a real live lane. Oh, I hate the roads and pavements, though I am a cockney chap And I'm tired of the very name of 'street' If at any time I cocks my eye upon a London map I can feel the corns a growing on my feet But I'm fresh as any farmer when in Drury Lane I walk And the piggies, sheeps and rabbits I can see Though the pretty baas are hanging in the butcher's with the pork And the bunnies are as Ostend as can be. Oh, I loves to take a ramble down my London country lane Where the nippers chuck things at you, and it isn't golden grain Though the scarlet beans and marrows Doesn't grow they're all on barrows Still it's painted up and sez so - it's a real live lane. When the London streets are baking, and they're ain't a bit of breeze You'll find the lane is quite a shady bower You can see the corn a-standing in the fields beneath the trees On the bags in which the baker sells his flower You can hear the village natives using Middlesexy words To the wagoner what drives the brewer's dray And you're almost sure to drop upon a lot of 'downy' birds Though you very seldom comes across a jay. Oh, I loves to take a ramble down my London country lane Where I meet the rustic maiden and I sing 'My pretty Jane' Though I never twigs the squire Nor observe the village spire Still it's painted up and sez so - it's a real live lane.
A turn of the century song remembered at Charles Keeping’s family sing-songs in the 1930s.
It was originally made famous by Alec Hurley – one of a number of cockney songs written by Edgar Bateman, this one with music composed by Albert Perry.
Sources:
- Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A32453
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Lyrics: monologues.co.uk
- A transcription of the music is available in Cockney Ding Dong by Charles Keeping
- Sheet Music Cover: (c)Victoria and Albert Museum, London