There are many versions of this song, sometimes known as the ‘Old Mans Courtship’, that have been collected throughout the length and breadth of the British Isles. A version ‘The Old Man from Lee’, appears in the 1959 Penguin Book of English Folksongs and I can recall hearing Jeanie Robertson singing a version of it at the 1965 Keele Folk Festival.
I can also recall hearing someone singing it in the early 1960’s, where each verse finished with the last lines:
‘With his long grey beard, with his long grey beard.
A shivering and shaking.’
The version here is in the local West Riding dialect, I learnt it from Keith Pearson, proprietor of Auty’s Music Shop, The Arcade, Dewsbury, and fiddle player with the Yorkshire Mixtures Ceilidh Band.
6. So my mother said go fetch him some beef.
Hee, but ah shan’t have him.
Well I fetched him some beef an' he ate like a thief.
With his old grey coit an, his leggin's.
7. So my mother said go fetch him some mutton
Hee, but ah shan’t have him.
I fetched him some mutton and he ate like a glutton. With his old grey coit an’ his leggin’s.
8. Ma mother said go tak him to bed
Hee, but ah shan’t have him.
Ah took him to bed and he tickled my leg.
With his old grey coit an, his leggin's.
9. So my mother said go tak him t' church
Hee, but ah shan’t have him.
Ah took him to church an, he sat in his shirt.
With his old grey coit an, his leggin’s.
Mick Haywood is a traditional folk singer & folk song collector who has run and organised folk clubs and festivals for many years. He now lives in Whitby, North Yorkshire.
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