> Folk > Songs > Morning Stands on Tiptoe / The Glittering Dewdrops / The Echoing Horn

Morning Stands on Tiptoe / The Glittering Dewdrops / The Echoing Horn

[ Roud 24896 , 24897 ; GlosTrad Tiptoe ; Wiltshire 1014 ; trad.]

Alfred Williams: Folk Songs of the Upper Thames

George Townshend sang The Echoing Horn (The Glittering Dewdrops) to Brian Matthews early in the 1960s and to Ken Stubbs in 1960. Both recordings were included in 2000 on his Musical Traditions anthology Come, Hand to Me the Glass. Rod Stradling noted in the album’s booklet:

This was one of the first songs George learned from his father, and the first he sang in public, back on the 29^th of September 1888, in The Jolly Sportsman. It’s not a well-known song—Steve Roud’s Folk Song Index has but three separate sightings. Inevitably, the Copper family sing it [no, their The Echoing Horn (Roud 878) has quite different verses], and it also turns up as song No 12 in the Holme Valley (Yorkshire) tradition’s book of hunting songs.

The Trugs sang The Echoing Horn on their 1971 Traditional Sound Recordings album And Boldly Go to Sea.

Dave and Toni Arthur sang Morning Stands on Tiptoe in 1976 as the title track of their Transatlantic album Morning Stands on Tiptoe. They noted:

The version sung here is a collated version using two verses from Alfred Williams’ Folk Songs of the Upper Thames [Roud 28496] who collected the song from Charles Messenger at Carney Wick and the chorus, last verse and tune from the singing of George Townsend of Lewes, Sussex, who calls it Glittering Dewdrops. Alfred Williams considered it unsurpassed as a hunting song.

The Songwainers sang The Glittering Dewdrops in 1971 on their eponymous Argo album The Songwainers. They noted:

Another hare-hunting song, recorded in the present century in at least Sussex and Wiltshire. This set of words is virtually the same as sung by George Townshend, of Lewes, to Tony Wales of the EFDSS in 1957, and is probably based on that version.

Gary and Vera Aspey sang Morning Stands on Tiptoe in a March or May 1976 live performance on their 1976 Topic album A Taste of Hotpot. They noted:

We finish as we began, with another hunting song. A favourite of ours which we enjoy singing. The reference to ‘puss’ in the last verse applies to any furry animal.

Bob Lewis sang The Echoing Horn at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival, Collessie, Fife in May 2009. His recordings were included in the following year on his festival CD Drive Sorrows Away.

Alison Frosdick sang When the Moon Stands on Tiptoe on Amsher’s 2018 album of Hampshire songs collected by Lucy Broadwood in Oxfordshire, Patience Vaisey at Adwell 1892. Bob Askew noted:

Alfred Williams felt this ‘unsurpassed as a hunting song’, but it turns into a love song in the last verse. It was noted a few times in Southern England, but seems to have been rather rare. Alison found that it was published in the Sporting Magazine in 1803 where it seems close to an Art song with the line “A nymph to pursue that’s more bright than the day”. Both Alfred Williams and George Gardiner noted a much more folk-like version without any nymphs. It is open to debate which came first.

Lyrics

Charles Messenger sings When Morning Stands on Tiptoe

When morning stands on tiptoe ’twixt mountain and sky,
How sweet ’tis to follow the hounds in full cry!
The hounds in full cry, the hounds in full cry,
How sweet ’tis to follow the hounds in full cry!

When the bright sparkling dewdrops the meadows adorn,
How sweet ’tis to follow the echoing horn!
The echoing horn, the echoing horn,
How sweet ’tis to follow the echoing horn!

But ’tis still greater pleasure when love leads the way;
Then in to pursue joys lighter than they!
Lighter than they, lighter than they,
Then in to pursue joys lighter than they!

Yet they joys are divine when, pursuing, we find;
Then he’s overtaken when the fair one proves kind,
The fair one proves kind, the fair one proves kind,
Then he’s overtaken when the fair one proves kind.

George Townshend sings The Echoing Horn (The Glittering Dewdrops)

The glittering dewdrops that spangles in the morn,
The glittering dewdrops that spangles in the morn,
Oh the bright shining dewdrops, oh the bright shining dewdrops
Oh the bright shining dewdrops, that spangles in the morn.

Chorus (after each verse):
Oh echo, bright echo, the echoing horn
Oh echo, bright echo, the echoing horn,
As she skim(s) through the dew on a bright smiling (summer’s) morn,
We will follow the hounds with an echoing horn;
How sweet it is to follow the echoing horn.

All nature’s so charming, so pleasant is the morn,
All nature’s so charming, so pleasant is the morn
We will all join together, we will all join together,
We will all join together at the sound of the horn.

When Puss rose from cover, ’twas early in the morn,
When Puss rose from cover, ’twas early in the morn.
Oh how sweet it is to follow, oh how sweet it is to follow,
Oh how sweet it is to follow, at the sound of the horn.

Dave and Toni Arthur sing Morning Stands on Tiptoe

When morning stands on tiptoe ’twixt mountain and sky,
When morning stands on tiptoe ’twixt mountain and sky,
Oh how sweet it is to follow, how sweet it is to follow,
Oh how sweet it is to follow the hounds in full cry!

Chorus (after each verse):
Echo, bright echo, the echoing horn,
Oh echo, bright echo, the echoing horn.
As she skims through the dew on the bright shining morn,
We will follow the hunts with an echoing horn.
How sweet it is to follow the echoing horn!

When bright smiling dewdrops the meadows adorn,
When bright smiling dewdrops the meadows adorn,
Oh how sweet it is to follow, how sweet it is to follow,
Oh how sweet it is to follow the echoing horn!

When Puss runs from cover ’twas early in the morn,
When Puss runs from cover ’twas early in the morn,
Oh how sweet it is to follow, how sweet it is to follow,
Oh how sweet it is to follow the echoing horn!

Gary and Vera Aspey sing Morning Stands on Tiptoe

Chorus (after each verse):
Echo, bright echo, the echoing horn,
Oh echo, bright echo, the echoing horn.
As she skims through the dew on the bright shiny morn,
We will follow the hunt with an echoing horn.
How sweet it is to follow the echoing horn!

When bright smiling dewdrops the meadows adorn,
When bright smiling dewdrops the meadows adorn,
Oh how sweet it is to follow, how sweet it is to follow,
Oh how sweet it is to follow the echoing horn!

Bob Lewis sings The Echoing Horn

The glittering dewdrops that spangles in the morn,
The glittering dewdrops that spangles in the morn;
Oh the bright shining dewdrops, oh the bright shining dewdrops,
The bright shining dewdrops that spangles in the morn.

Chorus:
Oh echo, bright echo the echoing horn,
Oh echo, bright echo the echoing horn;
As she skims through the dew on a bright shiny morn,
How sweet it is to follow the echoing horn,
How sweet it is to follow the echoing horn.