#SPRIG OF THYME ARCHIVE#

Other traditional English singers who performed the song include Fred Jordan of Ludlow, Shropshire, England, and George 'Pop' Maynard, whose recording is also available via the British Library Sound Archive.

#SPRIG OF THYME ARCHIVE#

Joseph Taylor of Saxby-All-Saints, Lincolnshire was recorded singing 'The Sprig of Thyme' by Percy Grainger in 1906 the recording can be heard on the British Library Sound Archive website. Many traditional singers have been recorded singing different variants of the song, The violet I forsook because it fades so soon,Īnd I vowed I'd stay till June. He chus'd me the violet the lilly and pink, The gardener he stood by I asked him to chuse for me I had not the liberty to chuse for myself, My gardens well planted with flowers every where,

I sewed the seeds of love it was all in the spring, The first two verses of a broadside printed between 18 in London ('Seeds of Love' variant): It's thyme that brings all things to an end, I would have you weed your gardens clear, The first three verses of a broadside printed between 18 in Manchester and Leeds ('Sprig of Thyme' variant): Other plants are mentioned in other versions. In some versions of Garners Gay, the narrator plucks up all rue and plants a sturdy oak in its place with the hope that it will grow strong and remain as true as the stars do to the sky. In a version of Let No Man Steal Your Thyme, she wishes she were in her lover’s arms but she tells false men not to give her cause to complain about the grass underfoot being 'trodden down' – in time, it will rise again. There is many a 'dark and cloudy morn brings forth a pleasant day' and 'there are fine boats sailing here'. Her parents were angry but she will cut the head off the rose and plant a willow for all to see. He stole the thyme and left only rue, with its 'running root', growing in its place. Once, she had a sprig of thyme but a gardener’s son came with a red rose, a blue violet and some bitter rue. In one version of Maiden’s Lament, the narrator tells her audience to keep their gardens fair and not to let anyone steal their thyme. The audience was delighted as one said, it was the first time that the song had been put into evening dress. He immediately harmonised the song and that same evening it was sung at a choir supper by Mattie Kay, Cecil Sharp accompanying. Cecil Sharp whipped out his notebook and took down the tune and then persuaded John to give him the words. Maud Karpeles wrote about this occasion in her 1967 autobiography:Ĭecil Sharp was sitting in the vicarage garden talking to Charles Marson and to Mattie Kay, who was likewise staying at Hambridge, when he heard John England quietly singing to himself as he mowed the vicarage lawn. The Seeds of Love, sung by the gardener John England, was the first folk song Cecil Sharp ever collected while he was staying with Charles Marson, vicar of Hambridge, Somerset, England, in 1903. The versions allegedly written by Habergram would have been the 'Seeds of Love' variant The 'Sprig of Thyme' / 'Let No Man Steal Your Thyme' variant is probably older than the 'Seeds of Love' variant it has a more modal, sad melody with abstract and reflective lyrics. Fleetwood Habergam “undone by the extravagance, and disgraced by the vices of her husband,” wrote of her woes in the symbolism of flowers however, the folklorist Cecil Sharp doubted this claim.

In Thomas Dunham Whitaker's History of the Parish of Whalley, it is claimed that around the year 1689, a woman named Mrs.

Sprig of thyme