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The Hampshire Mummers’ Christmas Carol

[ Roud 1065 ; Ballad Index LEBC078 ; GlosTrad Roud 1065 ; Wiltshire 88 ; trad]

Lucy E. Broadwood: English Traditional Songs and Carols

Godfrey Arkwright of the Mummers of Kingsclere, Hampshire, sang the Hampshire Mummers’ Christmas Carol in 1897 to Lucy Broadwood. It was printed in her 1908 book English Traditional Songs and Carols.

Belshazzar’s Feast sang the Hampshire Mummers’ Song in 2009 on their WildGoose album Frost Bites. This track was also included in 2021 on their WildGoose anthology That’s All Folkies!. They noted:

Sung by Godfrey Arkwright of Kingsclere, Hampshire in 1897 to Lucy Broadwood, this carol was in the repertoire of the Kingsclere Mummers, and appears to some extent to be comprised of ‘floating verses’.

The Albion Christmas Band sang the Hampshire Mummers’ Christmas Carol in 2016 on their Talking Elephant album Magic Touch.

Cooper & Toller sang The Hampshire Mummers’ Carol on their 2024 album Year’s End. They noted:

From The Forgotten Songs of the Upper Thames, by Alfred Williams. In the book the song is simply called Christmas Carol. The words are from Jane Ockwell of Poulton, Gloucestershire. When he was young, Alfred Williams worked as a steam-hammer operator at the Great Western Railway works in Swindon. Alfred had left school aged eleven but studied literature and the arts in his spare time. The Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard newspaper published 439 of his collected songs between 1915 and 1916. In 1923 Williams’ best-known book, Folk Songs of the Upper Thames was published, containing 234 of these songs. The 2021 book The Forgotten Songs of the Upper Thames, edited by Martin Graebe, contains the songs not included in the original book. Both books are fantastic resources for folk song lyrics, but contain no tunes—Williams wanted to preserve peoples’ language and interests rather than their music. We have paired the song with a tune based on one we found in the 1701 edition of Playford’s English Dancing Master. The tune is Lumps of Pudding, which seemed an appropriately festive title, if not a very festive melody. Other tunes are available.

Lyrics

Godfrey Arkwright sings the Hampshire Mummers’ Christmas Carol

There is six good days all in the week,
All for a labouring man,
But the seventh is the Sabbath of out Lord Jesus Christ,
The Father and the Son.

On Sunday go to church, dear man;
Down on our knees we must fall,
And then we must pray that the Lord Jesus Christ
He will bless and save us all.

Bring up your children well, dear man,
Whilst they are in their youth,
For it might be the better for your sweet soul
When you go to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the fields they are as green, as green,
As green as any leaf,
Our Lord, our God, He has watered them
With the heavenly dew so sweet.

In hell it is dark, in hell it is dim,
in hell it is full of lies;
And that is the place where all wicked men must go
When they part from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Then take your Bible in your band
And read your chapter through;
And when the day of Judgement comes,
The Lord remember you.

Then bring us some of your Christmas ale,
And likewise your Christmas beer;
For when another Christmas comes
We may not all be here.

With one stone at your head, oh man,
And another stone at your feet.
Your good deeds and your evil
Will all together meet.

Jane Ockwell sings Christmas Carol

God sent for us the Sunday,
All with his Holy hand;
He made the sun fair and the moon,
The waters and dry land.

There are six good days in all the week,
All for a labouring man;
The seventh day to serve the Lord,
The Father, and the Son.

Now, when you go to church, dear man,
Down on your knees you fall;
And pay your worship to the Lord,
And on his mercy call.

For the saving of your soul, dear man,
Christ died upon the Cross;
For the saving of your soul, dear man,
Christ’s precious blood was lost.

Three drops of our sweet Saviour’s blood,
Were shed and spilt for me;
We shall never do for our sweet Saviour,
As He has done for we.

My song is done, we must be gone,
We stay no longer here;
As I wish you all a merry, merry Christmas,
And a happy New Year.