Verse 1
My sweetheart come along, don’t you hear the fond song
The sweet notes of the nightingale flow?
Don’t you hear the fond tale of the sweet nightingale,
As she sings in the valley below,
as she sings in the valley below.
Verse 2
Pretty Betty don’t fail, for I’ll carry your pail
Safe home to your cot as we go:
You shall hear the fond tale of the sweet nightingale,
As she sings in the valley below,
As she sings in the valley below.
Verse 3
Pray let me alone, I have hands of my own,
And along with you sir I’ll not go
For to hear the fond tale of the sweet nightingale
As she sings in the valley below,
As she sings in the valley below.
Verse 4
Pray sit yourself down with me on the ground
On the bank where the primroses grow
You shall hear the fond tale of the sweet nightingale
As she sings in the valley below,
As she sings in the valley below.
Verse 5
So she sat herself down with him on the ground
On the bank where the primroses grow
And she heard the fond tale of the sweet nightingale
As she sings in the valley below,
As she sings in the valley below.
Verse 6
The couple agreed to be married with speed
And along to the church they did go
Now no more she’s afraid for to walk in the shade
Or to sit in those valleys below,
Or to sit in those valleys below.
This appears to be a Cornish song, as is confidently claimed by Robert Bell, who published it in his 1846 volume "Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of Peasantry in England". He goes on to say that he believed it to have a 17th Century origin, claimed to be translated from an original version in Cornish. The song was popular with lead and tin miners, and they took it around the world with them, anywhere that their highly demanded skills would take them. Indeed, Robert Bell first heard the tune in Germany, sung by miners working at a local lead mine.
The song, like so many other Folk and Morris ditties, has a number of alternative titles, occasionally being found going by the name 'Down in Those Valleys Below', which perhaps more perfectly reveals the lurid nature of the songs lyrics!
Woodside, and many others in the Morris world it must be said, have developed the habit of flicking a finger out of their mouths to make a popping sound when reference is made to the lady's ring and finger. It can also be done where the clear but disguised references to a bit of hanky panky are made. It may not be clever, but it is frequently quite funny.
