A compilation from a number of variants, the text and tune
are based on those of Charles Bull, Snr., aged 49, of Longdown,
near Marchwood in Hampshire. Noted on 12th June,
1907, it is one of 18 songs transcribed by Dr George Gardiner
and John Guyer from Bull, who at some point lived in Magazine
Cottages, Magazine Lane, Marchwood, and whose
father Samuel had lived at Longdown and worked as a shepherd.
Roud 363.
lyrics
WHILE GAMEKEEPERS LIE SLEEPING
WORDS AND MUSIC TRADITIONAL
I got a dog and a good dog too,
I has him in my keeping.
To catch those hares that run by night,
While gamekeepers lie sleeping.
My dog and me went out one night,
To learn some education.
Up jumps a hare and away she runs,
Into a large plantation.
She kicked and squealed, she holloed out,
When something stopped her running.
I says lie still you silly thing,
Your uncle’s just a-coming.
My dog and me the scent could tell,
Twas in a field on further.
Up jumps the hare and away she runs,
My dog and me struck murder.
I picked her up and smoothed her down,
And put her in my keeping.
I says to my dog time to be gone,
While gamekeepers lie sleeping.
My dog and me away did go,
Straight back into the town.
I took this hare to a labouring man,
And sold her for a crown.
We called into some public house,
And there we got quite mellow.
We spent that crown and another one too,
Aren’t I a jolly fellow?
I got a dog and a good dog too,
I has him in my keeping.
To catch those hares that run by night,
While gamekeepers lie sleeping.
Label, Production- and Publishing Company, founded 1987, based in Cologne, Germany. Releases are CDs, Vinyls, DVDs, sheet
music and biographies. Mainly concentrating on music from North of latitude 40. - means: roughly the area above the latitude that goes through Paris....more
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