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Carter’s Health

[ Roud 1384 ; Ballad Index BrMa142 ; trad.]

Carter’s Health is a harvest-home toast from Lucy Broadwood and J.A. Fuller Maitland’s book English County Songs, Leadenhall Press, London, 1893.

Pam Gilder, Eddie Upton and Vic Gammon sang The Carter’s Health in 1976 on The Tale of Ale.

Magpie Lane sang The Carter’s Health in 1994 on their CD Speed the Plough. A live recording of them singing Carter’s Health and Mistress’s Health from 21 September 2013 at St Mary’s Church, Bampton, Oxfordshire was Andy Turner’s 11 October 2014 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Lyrics

Magpie Lane sing Carter’s Health

Of all the horses in the merry greenwood
The bobtailed mare bears the bells away.
There is Hey, there is Ree, there is Hoo, there is Gee,
But the bobtailed mare bears the bells away.
Hey, Ree, Hoo, Gee,
But the bobtailed mare bears the bells away.