> The Copper Family > Songs > The Pleasant Month of May

The Merry Haymakers / The (Pleasant) Month of May / Tumbling Through the Hay

[ Roud 153 ; Master title: The Merry Haymakers ; Henry H697 ; Ballad Index HHH697 ; VWML RoudFS/S215305 ; GlosTrad Roud 153 ; Wiltshire 119 , 120 ; trad.]

The Copper Family Song Book Everyman’s Book of English Country Songs The Constant Lovers Sam Henry’s Songs of the People Songs of the West The Life of a Man

This song from the repertoire of the Copper Family is printed in The Copper Family Song Book. Bob and Ron Copper sang this song as The Merry Haymakers on the LP Jack of All Trades (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 3; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1968) and as The Month of May in 1963 on their EFDSS LP Traditional Songs From Rottingdean; which was reissued in 2001 on the Topic CD Come Write Me Down: Early Recordings of the Copper Family of Rottingdean. Bob and John Copper sang Pleasant Month of May in 1971 on their Leader box A Song for Every Season. Another generation, John and Jill Copper, sang The Month of May in 1998 on their CD Coppersongs 3: The Legacy Continues. And Mark Barratt and Tom Copper from the most recent Copper Family generation sang Pleasant Month of May in 2008 on the Young Coppers CD Passing Out.

Sam Larner sang Merry Month of May in a recording made by Philip Donnellan for the BBC in Larner’s home in Winterton, Norfolk in 1958/59; this was published in 1974 on his Topic LP A Garland for Sam and in 1998, with the title The Pleasant Month of May, on the Topic anthology Come All My Lads That Follow the Plough (The Voice of the People Volume 5).

The Ian Campbell Folk Group sang The Haymakers on their 1972 album Something to Sing About. Ian Campbell noted:

A beautiful and stately song, full of the sunshine that is necessary for successful haymaking, and with that dreamlike quality which in the listener’s mind recreates a childhood summer or some such golden age.

Levi Smith sang this song as The Haymakers in a recording made by Mike Yates near Epsom, Surrey, in May 1974. It was published in 1975 on the Topic LP of gypsies, travellers and country singers, Songs of the Open Road, and in 1998 on the Topic anthology My Father’s the King of the Gypsies (The Voice of the People Volume 11). Mike Yates noted on the first album:

The Haymakers stems from a long blacklister broadside, The countrey peoples Felicitie, or A brief Description of Pleasures, first licensed to the printer Francis Grove on 12 March 1656. It has lasted well in tradition, having been noted by most collectors in southern England. Levi Smith has the song in a somewhat fragmentary form, although he insists that his version is complete. Grove’s broadside includes the following lines:

Sweet jug, jug, jug, jug, jug, jug, jug the nightingale did sing,
whose noble voice, made all rejoice; as they were hay-making.

which explains that the jug is the song of the nightingale and not the beer receptacle of Levi’s song.

Joe Holmes sang Tumbling Through the Hay in a recording made by Neil Wayne and Lyn Murfin in the north of Ireland in 1975. It was released a year later on his and Len Graham’s Free Reed LP Chaste Muses, Bards and Sages. The liner notes commented:

Ireland doesn’t boast many songs about work. Here’s one which Joe got from his mother—it has, of course, a bit of play as well.

John Roberts, Tony Barrand, Fred Breunig and Steve Woodruff sang The Month of May on their 1980 album To Welcome In the Spring.

Len Graham sang Tumbling Through the Hay in 1983 on his Claddagh album Do Me Justice. He noted:

This song from the late Joe Holmes, Ballymoney, County Antrim, is one of the rare bawdy songs, although in this case fairly mild, to appear in the Songs of the People (no. 697). The late Sam Henry seems to have avoided or censored songs of an erotic nature which may have offended the readers of the ‘Northern Constitution’ in the 1920s and 30s.

Graham and Sheila Nelmes sang The Merry Haymakers in 1983 on their Traditional Sound Recordings album High Is the Tower.

Bill Jones sang The Haymakers in 2003 on her CD Two Year Winter.

Jane and Amanda Threlfall sang Pleasant Month of May on their 2008 CD Sweet Nightingale. They noted:

This song is cemented into the repertoire of the Copper family. In his book, A Song for Every Season (Heinemann, 1971), Bob Copper describes the earlier pattern of farming his family enjoyed in the Sussex of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He relates it in a way that gives credence to the image of life being very much like this for many country people back then. That is said, not by straining it through some nostalgic gauze or framing it within an imagined idyll, but as the simple reality of a rural world devoid of any future version of itself.

Life was hard, maybe, but most could squeeze a fair amount of enjoyment from it. The singer of this song wouldn’t have dared put voice to sentiments such as these, in front of his fellow workers, if he was likely to be pounced upon as a heretic. This is far removed from the world of Tolpuddle, members of the jury, and the song survives to tell the tale.

The Andover Museum Loft Singers, conducted by Paul Sartin, sang Pleasant Month of May, “another song from the Copper Family of Rottingdean”, in 2012 on their WildGoose album The Bedmaking.

Marilyn Tucker and Paul Wilson sang Haymaking in 2012 on their WildGoose album of traditional songs from Devon and Cornwall from the collection of Sabine Baring-Gould, Dead Maid’s Land. They noted:

Something like this song is found alive and well in the repertoire of several country singers like the Coppers of Sussex, while the poetry suggests more urban stage play origins. John Woodrich sang tune and words to Baring Gould in 1890 [VWML RoudFS/S215305] , but claimed it was an imperfect remembering of his father¹s favourite song from 40 years earlier.

Jackie Oates sang The Pleasant Month of May in 2009 on her CD Hyperboreans.

Lisa Knapp sang The Pleasant Month of May, in 2012 on her EP Hunt the Hare (A Branch of May Volume One) and in 2017 on her CD Till April Is Dead. According to the EP’s sleeve notes, it is “a traditional song most notably from the Copper Family repertoire […] here set in driving, contemporary style yet remains true to the original.”

Chris Sarjeant sang Haymaking in 2012 on his WildGoose album Heirlooms. He noted:

Again this popular Sussex song came from my parents [Derek Sarjeant and Hazel King].

Jim Causley sang The Merry Haymakers on his 2021 CD Devonia. He noted:

Traditional, Baring-Gould Collection. Collected from John Woodrich, blacksmith of Thrushleton [VWML RoudFS/S215305] .

Jon Wilks sang the Haymaking Song in 2023 on his album Before I Knew What Had Begun I Had Already Lost. He noted:

I used to play this with my friends Paul Sartin and Callum Baird in around 2016. It’s a traditional song collected in Whitchurch, Hampshire, where we lived. I forgot all about it until shortly after Paul died, when Jackie Oates and I resurrected it and worked on it again. Paul’s fiddle part was never taped, so I hummed what I could remember to Jackie, and she is playing my aural recollection. I hope we got it right.

Adrienne O’Shea sang Tumblin’ Through the Hay on her 2023 album Threads of Gold. She noted:

I learned this song from Brian Ó hAirt at the Minnesota Irish Music weekend (MIM). He had learned this song from Len Graham who had learned it from Joe Holmes before him. I loved the playful nature of this song and the warning given by the singer to the listener.

Lyrics

The Copper Family sing The Month of May

’Twas in the pleasant month of May in the springtime of the year,
And down by yonder meadow there runs a river clear,
See how the little fishes how they do sport and play
Causing many a lad and many a lass to go there a-making hay.

Then in comes the scytheman that meadow to mow down,
With his old leathered bottle and the ale that runs so brown.
There’s many a stout and labouring man comes here his skill to try,
He works, he mows, he sweats and blows and the grass cuts very dry.

Then in comes both Tom and Dick with their pitch-forks and their rakes
And likewise black-eyed Susan the hay all for to make.
There’s a sweet, sweet, sweet and a jug, jug, jug, how the harmless birds did sing,
From the morning till the evening as we were a-haymaking.

It was just at one evening as the sun was a-going down,
We saw the jolly piper come a-strolling through the town.
There he pulled out his tabor and pipes and he made the valley ring,
So we all put down our rakes and forks and left off haymaking.

We callèd for a dance and we trippèd it along,
We danced all round the haycocks till the rising of the sun.
When the sun did shine such a glorious light and the harmless birds did sing,
Each lad he took his lass in hand and went back to his haymaking.

Sam Larner sings The Pleasant Month of May

’Twas in the pleasant month of May in the springtime of the year,
It was down by yonder meadows there runs a river clear.
Look at those little fishes! See how they sport and play!
Make many a lad and many a lass go there for to make hay.

Now, in comes the jolly scythesman the hay for to mow down,
With his good old leathering bottle and the beer that is so brown,
There’s many of stout labouring men go there their skill to try,
For they cut, they mow, they lace, they blow, and the grass cut very dry.

Now, in come the jolly scythesmen with a pitchfork and a rake,
And likewise black-eyed Susan, the hay all for to make.
There’s a long jug jug and sweet jug and the nightingale did sing,
From the morning till the evening we went a-haymaking.

Now, the day being almost over and night was coming on,
We laid among the cocks of hay till rising of the sun,
And the larks did sing most gloriously and each harmless bird did sing,
Then each lad he took his lassie and they went a-haymaking.

There’s many of stout labouring men go there their skill to try
For they cut, they mow, they lace, they blow and the grass cut very dry.

Spoken: Well, you repeat that. That’s a little ditty.

Levi Smith sings The Haymakers

For it’s all in the pleasure of month of May in the springtime of the year,
For over yonder meadow, boys, there runs a river clear.
For you see those little fishes, for you see those sport and play,
But there’s many lads and bonny lads, we was brought to making hay.

Now, there comes Paul and Peter with their pitchforks and their rakes,
For likewise dark-eyed Susan, for the hay we had to make.
For she pulled out the pipe of ivory and this is what she reply,
But we all chucked down our forks and rakes, and we left off making hay.

Chorus
Oh, jug, oh, sweet jug, oh, drink to the morning’s dew,
That we all chucked down our forks and rakes, and we left off making hay.

Joe Holmes sings Tumbling Through the Hay

It being in the month of July in the rosy time of the year,
Down by yon flowery meadows where the waters does run clear,
Where the lambs and little fishes do merrily sport and play,
And the lads and the lasses they go tumbling through the hay.

Chorus (after each verse):
La de dee die de tol da lee
La de dee die la de die
La de dee die de tol da lee.

Then up came lovely Johnny with a pitchfork and a rake,
And up came lovely Molly the hay then for to make,
For they timed their notes so merrily as the nightingale did sing,
And from morning until evening they were at their haymaking.

Then up came the mowers the hay for to cut down,
With their scythes upon their shoulders and their hair a lovely brown,
Then up came the labourers the hay for to shake out,
And when they had it all cut down they tossed it all about.

It was coming up to Saturday and all would get their pay,
And all these jolly haymakers were feeling blithe and gay,
The number of these haymakers as near as I can say
Were five and twenty boys and girls tumbling through the hay.

When one short year were over and all was past and gone,
There were five and twenty fair maids making their sad moan,
Singing, Hush-la ba-baby, these fair maids did say,
And many’s a time they wished they ne’er had tossed among the hay.

John Roberts and Tony Barrand sing The Month of May

It was in the pleasant month of May in the springtime of the year,
And down by yonder meadow there runs a river clear.
See how the little fishes, how they do sport and play,
Causing many a lad and many a lass to go there a-making hay.

Then in comes the scythesman that meadow to mow down,
With his old leathered bottle and the ale that runs so brown.
There’s many a stout and a labouring man goes there his skill to try.
He works, he mows, he sweats, he blows and the grass cuts very dry.

Then in comes both Tom and Dick with their pitchforks and their rakes,
And likewise black-eyed Susan the hay all for to make.
There’s a sweet, sweet, sweet and a jug, jug, jug, how the harmless birds do sing,
From the morning to the evening as were a-haymaking.

It was just at one evening as the sun was a-going down
We saw the jolly piper come strolling through the town.
There he pulled out his tabor and pipe and he made the valleys ring,
So we all put down our rakes and forks and we left off haymaking.

We called for a dance and we tripped it along,
We danced all round the haycocks till the rising of the sun.
When the sun did shine such a glorious light and the harmless birds did sing,
Each laddie took his lass in hand and went back to his haymaking.

Len Graham sings Tumbling Through the Hay

It being in the month of July in the rosy time of the year,
Down by yon flowery meadows where the water does run clear,
Where the lambs and little fishes they do merrily sport and play,
And the lads and the lasses they go tumbling through the hay.

Chorus (after each verse):
La de dee die de tol da lee
La de dee die la de die
la de dee die de tol da lee.

Then up comes lovely Johnny with a pitchfork and a rake,
And up comes lovely Molly the hay then for to make.
They timed their notes so merrily as the nightingale did sing,
From morning until evening they were at their haymaking.

Then up comes the mowers the hay for to cut down,
With their scythes upon their shoulders and their hair a lovely brown.
Then up comes the labourers the hay for to shake out,
And when they had it all cut down they tossed it all about.

It was coming up to Saturday and all would get their pay,
Aye, and all these jolly haymakers were feeling blithe and gay.
The number of these haymakers as near as I can say
Were five and twenty boys and girls a-tumbling through the hay.

When nine short months were over and all was passed and gone
There were five and twenty boys and girls a-making their sad moan.
Hush-la ba-baby these fair maids they did say
And many a time they wished they ne’er had tossed among the hay.

Jon Wilks sings Haymaking Song

’Twas was in the merry month of May
In the springtime of the year
When down in yonder meadow
There runs a river clear.
To see those little fishes
How they do sport and play,
Calling many a lad and many a lass
All there to making hay.

Then in come both Will and Tom
With pitchfork and with rake,m
And likewise black-eyed Susan
The hay all there to make.
With sweet jug and sweet jug
How the nightingale does sing,
From the morning to the evening
As we go haymaking.

Then just as Bright Phoebus
The sun was going down,
Along came two piping men
Approaching from the town.
They pulled out their tabor and pipes
Which made those pretty girls to sing,
Then they all put down their forks and rakes
And left off haymaking.