Gents Mag 1867 part 2 p.362
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list, 3rd qtr 19th century | ||
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Gentleman's Magazine 1867 part 2 p.362
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Oak Apple Day
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Oak Apple Day
OLD SONG FOR OAK-APPLE DAY. 9. MR. URBAN, - I send you a song which you may perhaps remember as better known in your early youth (in 1731) than it is now. Alas! and well-a-day! Even in my own infancy (a century later) it was annually sung by and "learnt" to all the rustic population of Wooley, a little village near Bath. The clerk's wife prided herself on teaching it to the little flock who met at her house for Sunday-school, and on the 29th of May they walked in procession, headed by the biggest boy, carrying an oak bough, into which a smaller one mounted on their arrival at our house in the neighbouring village of Swanswick, and the ancient song was begun, I think, as a solo, and finishing in chorus whenever the 29th of May was mentioned. I possess an accurate copy, transcribed "by the unlettered muse," which preserves the local pronunciation of some words; and glad I am to have it, for I find the remembrance is fast dying away, now that good Mrs. Caswell is laid to her rest in the quiet little churchyard. "Oh! let us sing of ancient days, and never to forget, For the martyrs of our Royal King it makes us to regret, In consequence of the Papist race, and to maintain their pride The Royal King of England they kill'd and sacra-fi-d. "This Villany people was determin'd the family to destroy, But the kind hand of providence Did their evil works annoy. For the great Escape of the Royal Prince which happenend on this day, A loyal day for to Be Kep is the twenty-ninth of May. "For when the King his Father he was condemned to die, He called for his Children, and wished them all good-bie. |
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