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Green Gravel

[ Roud 1368 ; Henry H48b ; Ballad Index R532 ; DT GRNGRAVL ; Mudcat 69136 ; trad.]

Green Gravel is printed in Lucy Broadwood and J.A. Fuller Maitland’s book English County Songs (London: Leadenhall Press, 1893) where Lucy Broadwood described this children’s game:

This game is played by girls only, all joining hands and dancing in a ring. One, called the ‘mother’, who by the way does not stand in the middle, but in the ring, names the girls in any order she pleases. As each girl is named, she turns her back on the ring and covers her face with her hands or pinafore; the game then goes on without her.

This dismal little game, which has been found in many parts of the country, is obviously a dramatic representation of mourning, and the suggested explanation of ‘green gravel’ as a corruption of ‘green grave’ is almost undoubtedly the right one. In the Scottish lowlands, about a hundred years ago [i.e. c.1790], the attendants on a corpse newly laid out went out of the death-chamber, returning to it backwards. Is there possibly a reference to this or a similar custom in the words ‘turn round your head’ in this game?

Children of the Ritchie Family sang Green Gravels on the 1958 Folkways album The Ritchie Family of Kentucky on which Jean Ritchie interviews her family, with documentary recordings. She noted:

A local game, sung and played by neighbor cousins of the Ritchies, the children and grandchildren of Hiram and Abbie Pratt, and their friends, on Masons Creek, near Viper, Kentucky. It.is a simple game. All the children join hands in a ring and walk around to the left, singing the song. Each time the line is sung, “O Susie, O Susie, your truelove is dead”, a different child is named, and that child turns and joins hands facing out of the circle, until all children in the circle are facing to the outside. Then each one has to “Name your sweetheart”, amid much laughing and blushing, and is allowed to turn to the inside of the circle again.

Evelyne Beers sang Green Gravel in 1975 on the Fox Hollow Festival 10^th anniversary album, A Place to Be.

Fay Hield took Green Gravel from Alice Bertha Gomme’s book The Traditional Games of England, Scotland, and Ireland Vol. 1 (London: David Nutt, 1894). She sang it on her 2016 album Old Adam, and it was also released in October 2015 as an advance digital download single. Fay commented in her sleeve notes:

Green Gravel is a playground song with many versions and variants, none telling the full story. I took bits and pieces and built something that makes sense to me.

Peter Knight’s Gigspanner sang Green Gravel on their 2017 CD The Wife of Urban Law. They noted:

Green Gravel is a children’s circle game, and the song exists in many forms. We learned this version from the singing of Fay Hield, who arranged this particular set of verses and also wrote the tune. Thanks to Fay for letting us use it.

Lyrics

The Ritchie Family sings Green Gravels

Green gravels, green gravels, the earth is so green.
all over creation ashamed to be seen.

O Midge, O Midge, your truelove is dead,
He wrote you a letter to turn back your head.

Fay Hield sings Green Gravel

Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green,
Such beautiful flowers as ever were seen.

Oh Annie, oh Annie, your sweetheart has fled,
He’s sent you a letter to turn round your head.

Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green,
The fairest young damsel that ever was seen.

She’s neither within, she’s neither without,
She’s up in the garret a-walking about.

Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green,
The pretty young maidens are plain to be seen.

Oh Annie, oh Annie, your sweetheart is dead!
They sent you a letter to drop down your head.

Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green,
The dismalest damsel that ever was seen.

Oh Mother, oh Mother, do you think it is true?
Oh yes, dear! Oh yes, dear! Then what shall I do?

Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green,
The pretty young maidens are not to be seen.

We washed her, we dried her, we rolled her in silk,
And we wrote down her names with a gold pen and ink.

Green gravel, green gravel, the grass is so green,
The flowers are all faded, there’s none to be seen.

Around the green gravel the grass is so green,
The flowers are all faded, there’s none to be seen.