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By Chance It Was

[ Roud 6901 / Song Subject MAS1 ; Ballad Index BGFS001 ; VWML SBG/1/1/3 ; Folkinfo 56 ; Mudcat 3960 ; trad.]

Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould: Songs of the West.

By Chance It Was is the first song in Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould’s 1913 book Songs of the West.

Mike Bosworth sang By Chance It Was as the title track of his 2004 CD of songs from the Sabine Baring-Gould Collection, By Chance It Was. He noted:

This is the first song in Songs of the West, and is the title of this, my first CD. The tune and words come from James Parsons, the hedger of Lewdown (between Okehampton and Lifton in Devon) who had learnt the song from his father ‘The Singing Machine’ [VWML SBG/1/1/3] . In his notes Sabine is inclined to think that the song dates from the time of James I or Charles I. He found the song in the British Museum in ballad books entitled The Court of Apollo and he notes that of the six verses there, three are almost word for word as that collected from James Parsons.

Bruce Tydall, Esq. of Exmouth gave another version with a variation of the melody, he had learnt this from a Devonshire nurse in 1839 or 1840.

The story line is similar to Searching for Lambs, which Cecil Sharp collected from Mrs. Sweet (aged 62) of Somerton, Somerset in 1907. Sharp described Searching for Lambs as the most perfect folk song.

Lyrics

By Chance It Was in Songs of the West

By chance it was I met my love,
It did me much surprise,
Down by a shady myrtle grove,
Just as the sun did rise.
The birds they sang right gloriously,
And pleasant was the air;
And there was none, save she and I,
Among the flowers fair.

In dewy grass and green we walk’d,
She timid was and was coy;
“How can’st thou choose but pity me,
My pretty pearl, my joy?
How comes it that thou stroll’st this way?
Sweet Maiden, tell me true,
Before bright Phoebus’ glittering ray
Has supped the morning dew?”

“I go to tend the flocks I love
The ewes and tender lambs,
That pasture by the myrtle grove,
That gambol by their dams;
There I enjoy a pure content
At dawning of the day,”
Then, hand in hand, we lovers went
To see the flock at play.

And as we wended down the road.
I said to her, “Sweet maid,
Three years I in my place abode
And three more must be stayed.
Three times that I am bound so fast,
O fairest wait for me.
And when these weary years are passed
Then married we will be”

“Three years are long, three times to long,
Too lengthy the delay”.
O then I answered in my song,
“Hope wastes them quick away.
Where love is fervent, fain and fast,
And knoweth not decay.
There nimbly fleet the seasons past,
Accounted as one day.”

Mike Bosworth sings By Chance It Was

By chance it was I met my love,
It did me much surprise,
Down by a shady myrtle grove,
Just as the sun did rise.
The birds they sang right gloriously,
And pleasant was the air;
And there was none but she and I
Among the flowers fair.

In dewy grass and green we walk’d,
She was timid and was coy;
“How can’st thou choose but pity me,
My pretty pearl, my joy?
How comes it that thou stroll’st this way?
Sweet Maiden, tell me true,
Before bright Phoebus’ glittering ray
Has supped the morning dew?”

“I go to tend the flock I love
of ewes and tender lambs,
That pasture by the myrtle grove,
That gambol by their dams;
There I enjoy a pure content
At dawning of the day,”
And hand in hand we lovers went
To see the flock at play.

And as we walked along the road.
I said to her, “Sweet maid,
Three years I in my place abode
And three more must be stayed.
The three that I am bound so fast,
O fairest wait for me.
And when the weary years are passed
Then married we shall be”

“Three years are long, three times to long,
Too lengthy the delay”.
O then I answered in my song,
“Hope fades it quick away.
Where love is fervent, fain and fast,
And knoweth not decay.
There quickly fleets the seasons past,
Accounted as one day.”