The Bonny Hawthorn

Lyrics

1
One midsummer's morn when all nature looked gay
I met my lovely creature a-taking the air; (Repeat first 2 lines)

Chorus
I said, 'My lovely creature, come tell me where you dwell.'
'Beside the bonny hawthorn that blooms in the dale,
That blooms in the dale, that blooms in the dale,
Beside the bonny hawthorn that blooms in the dale.

2
Then hark, bonny Bess, to the birds in yon grove,
How delightfully they sing when inviting to rove,
And hark, bonny Bess etc.

3
I kissed her and said that my love was sincere,
That no-one on the green was so charming and fair, etc.

4
Now come, my fair maid, how can you refuse?
How sweet are those words and how charming the views, etc.

5
Then I listened with pleasure to a kind and tender tale,
Beside the bonny hawthorn that blooms in the dale, etc.

This is a traditional song

Provenance

This song for many years popular in the Esk Valley area was probably brought from Scotland by the many Scots who settled in the valley. Families of Scots extraction like the McNeils, MacDonalds, Nobles and Marsays have been in the area since the early seventeenth century. John thought they may have come to the area as drovers and decided to settle, or perhaps when the Highland clearances occurred. One of the McNeils could trace his family back to the Isle of Barra so there may have been a seaward connection. John's use of the word 'dale' in the song is more usually 'vale' and sometimes 'dell'. He tells us that the song can't have been composed locally as no self-respecting moorsman would use words like 'dale', 'vale' and 'dell'. In the Hudleston Collection are two versions, one sung by Arthur Wood, also of Littlebeck, and another by Bill Pennock of Goathland (See below). In some versions the second line has 'I met my lovely Jeanie a-tedding the hay'. John tells us that 'tedding' is the local word for 'lifting up of hay out of the swath with a fork'.

It was frequently printed by Scottish broadside printers, and some North East English printers. Judging by these varied texts and its highly flowery language, it probably dates from the mid-eighteenth century and could have been written for performance in the Edinburgh equivalents of Vauxhall and Ranelagh Gardens. It was printed in Edinburgh for more than a century and the prolific Glasgow and Dundee Poet's Boxes printed versions. The Glasgow printing of 1854 indicates the tune 'How sweet is love'. Marshall and Angus, both of Newcastle, printed versions, and it reached as far south as Durham being printed there by T. Hoggart. Durham, of course, is not a million miles from Eskdale!

Arthur Wood's version names the lovely creature as 'Jeanie', but she has undergone a sex-change; the early versions are narrated by the girl and the name of her lover in the first stanza is in some printings Johnny but more usually Jamie. Where the girl's name is given it is Nan, Nanny or Bess. Bill Pennock's fuller version consists of stanzas 1, 2, 3 and 6 of this Edinburgh version c1800.

The Hawthorn

1
Last midsummer morning as going to the fair,
I met with young Jamie, was taking the air;
He asked me to stay, and indeed he did prevail,
Beneath the pretty hawthorn that blooms in the vale.
That blooms in the valley, that blooms in the vale,
Beneath the pretty hawthorn that blooms in the vale.

2
He said he had lov'd me both long and sincere,
That none on the green was so gentle and fair:
I listened with pleasure to Jamie's tender tale,
Beneath the pretty hawthorn that blooms in the vale.

3
O hark, says he, Nan, to the birds in the grove,
How charming their song and inciting to love,
The briars clad with roses perfume the passing gale,
And sweet's the pretty hawthorn that blooms in the vale.

4
His words were so moving, and looks soft and kind,
Convinc'd me the youth had no guile in his mind,
My heart too confess'd him the flower of the dale,
Beneath the pretty hawthorn that blooms in the vale.

5
Yet I oft bid him go for I could no longer stay,
But leave me he would not nor let me away;
Still pressing his suit, and at last he did prevail,
Beneath the pretty hawthorn that blooms in the vale.

6
Now tell me ye maids how I could refuse,
His lips they were sweet, and so binding his vows:
We went and were married, and Jamie loves me still,
And we live beside the hawthorn that blooms in the vale,
That blooms in the vale, that blooms in the vale,
We live beside the hawthorn that blooms in the vale.