Ashen Bowl

[ Roud 209 ; VWML RoudFS/S317620 ; trad. English c. 1700s]

Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden sang Ashen Bowl in 2023 on their Hudson album Glad Christmas Comes. Eliza Carthy noted:

I came across this in Heywood Sumner’s beautiful 1888 collection The Besom Maker [where it has the title The Wassail Song]. The Rev. Stephen Keeble (after booking Saul [Rose] and me for a memorable concert at St. George’s, Headstone, and getting us both roundly drunk) thoroughly indoctrinated me into Sumner’s art and his too-passing interest in folk song, for which I’m very grateful.

Lyrics

Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden sing Ashen Bowl

A wassail, a wassail goes all round our town
Our cup it is white and our ale it is brown

Our bowl is made of a good ashen tree
And oh my kind fellow we’ll drink unto thee

We are in the old time, the new time comes fast
The new time comes fast and the old time is past

So I wish you all a happy new year
Your pockets full of money
And your barrels full of beer

Our bowl it is made of the good ashen tree
And so my good fellow we’ll drink unto thee

We’ll drink master’s health and our mistress beside
And all the pretty family around the fire side

And all that he has got well I know he does not mind
We’ll drink master’s health in water or in wine

Our bowl it is made of the good ashen tree
And so my good fellow we’ll drink unto thee

We’ll drink master’s health with the star on his breast
And when that he is dead we hope his soul will rest

So I wish you all a happy new year
Your pockets full of money
And your barrels full of beer

Our bowl it is made of the good ashen tree
And so my good fellow we’ll drink unto thee