> Folk Music > Songs > The Bunch of Rushes

The Bunch of Rushes / The Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green / The Reaping of the Rushes Green

[ Roud 831 , 3380 ; Master title: The Bunch of Rushes ; Ballad Index RcABLtlb ; VWML HAM/3/11/13 , GG/1/7/377 , FK/19/91/1 ; Bodleian Roud 831 ; Mudcat 42668 , 169020 ; trad.]

John Holloway, Joan Black: Bunch of Rushes O! Later English Broadside Ballads Frank Purslow: The Bonny Bunch of Rushes Marrow Bones James Reeves: Gathering Rushes The Everlasting Circle

Máire Ní Shúilleabháin (Maire O’Sullivan) of Ballylicky, Cork, sang An Binnsín Luachra (The Little Bench of Rushes) in a recording made by Séamus Ennis and Alan Lomax on the 1955 Columbia anthology The World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: Ireland.

Paddy Tunney sang The Reaping of the Rushes Green in 1975 of his Topic album The Mountain Streams Where the Moorcocks Crow. Cathal Ó Baoill noted:

Re mode. The source of innumerable pieces of roughly the same title is a song called An Binsin Luaichre or The Bench of Rushes. A ‘binse’ is a stone seat or bench once very common outside Irish doors. These benches, thanks to the climate, were either too hot, too wet or too cold to sit on, so that a cushion of sorts had to be put on them. A handful or two of rushes served as an insulator.

The story tells of a young girl who was cutting such a bunch of rushes when the hero arrived. Paddy’s English adaptation of the song faithfully follows the Gaelic original. Out of the title came a great number of similar titles such as The Bunch of Rushes, The Bonny Bunch of Roses and the Banks of the Roses. As you can see the titles are related, but though the tune is sometimes retained the words go very far afield, even in one case to the length of taking the Bunch of Roses as an image of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which Bonaparte wanted to capture.

O.J. Abbott of Hull, Quebec, sang The Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green to Edith Fowke in 1957. This recording was included in 1975 on the Leader album Far Canadian Fields which is a companion to Edith Fowke’s Penguin Book of Canadian Folk Songs. She noted:

Gathering rushes is a familiar symbol for sexual adventures in many countries. Not only is it found in several English and Irish songs, but in the popular French song Jeanneton prend sa facille and even, according to James Reeves, in a fourth-century Chinese love song translated as Plucking the Rushes.

This ballad is an English version of a widely known Gaelic song An binnsin luachra (The Little Bench of Rushes). Mrs. Clandillon quotes this note from O’Daly’s Reliques of Irish Jacobite Poetry: “The meaning of the word ‘beinsin’ (little bench) is mistaken by some of our most eminent writers, who suppose it to mean a ‘bunch’. In our youthful days it was a general custom with the peasantry to go on Midsummer Eve to the next bog and cut a ‘beart luachra’ (bundle of rushes), as much as a stout lad could carry home on his back; and this they strewed on benches of stone made for the purpose inside and outside their cottages; where the youth of the neighbourhood spent the evening in the usual pastimes.”

The original ballad follows the familiar pattern of the maid seduced and deserted, but Mr Abbott’s version turns it into a song celebrating the delights of true love.

Miss Broadwood collected two bilingual versions in Waterford in 1906, in which the singers sang alternate English and Gaelic stanzas, with the English ones being practically translations of the Gaelic. When she printed them in the Journal of the Folk Song Society she noted: “Dr Douglas Hyde writes that the Irish words are ‘famous’” and that “Mr Kidson has kindly sent me a ballad-sheet printed by Such, The Bunch of Rushes [VWML FK/19/91/1] , which is evidently a paraphrase of a common Irish original, but is distinct from the Irish ballad here printed.” H.E.D. Hammond collected another version in Dorset in 1905 [VWML HAM/3/11/13] , and James Reeves gives one collected by George B. Gardiner in Southampton in 1906 [VWML GG/1/7/377] , both obviously springing from the same Gaelic original but based on still different translations. Sam Henry has one, The Tossing of the Hay [Henry No. 635], which is closer to Mr Abbott’s, although none have anything corresponding to his final stanza, which makes me suspect that he may have added it himself. The only other trace of it in North America is a fragment found in New Brunswick.

Philip McDermott sang The Reaping of the Rushes Green on 6 August 1980 to Keith Summers, either in McGrath’s bar, Brookeborough, Co. Fermanagh, or at home in Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh. This recording was included in 1998 on the Topic anthology To Catch a Fine Buck was My Delight (The Voice of the People Volume 18, giving the first location), in 2004 on the Musical Traditions anthology of traditional songs from around Lough Erne’s shore collected by Keith Summers, The Hardy Songs of Dan.

Rod Stradling noted, while giving the second location for the recording:

This song was included on the Voice of the People volume on hunting songs; however—except for the incidental mention of beagles in the first verse—it has nothing whatever to do with hunting or poaching! It almost goes without saying that any song which includes the phrase ‘reaping of the rushes green’ has nothing whatsoever to do with rushes either! ‘Green rushes’ almost always refers to virginity/purity, and this is certainly the meaning in this song. Paddy Tunney also used to sing it.

Peta Webb sang The Bunch of Rushes Green on her 1989 Musical Traditions album The Magpie’s Nest.

Len Graham sang The Rushes Green in 1984 on his Claddagh album with Fintan McManus, Ye Lovers All. He noted:

Although not a literal translation, this would appear to be a version of the song in Irish, An Binsín Luachra (The Little Bunch of Rushes). Valerie McManus of Aughkillymaude, County Fermanagh, gave me this song.

Steve Turner sang The Bunch of Rushes in 1984 on his Fellside album Eclogue. This track was also include in 2006 on Fellside’s 30^th anniversary anthology Landmarks.

Lyrics

O.J. Abbott sings The Bonny Bunch of Rushes Green

As I roved out one May morning, to the green fields I took my way,
With my two beagles roaring, expecting there some game to see.
It was there I spied my Mary, she was fairer than an Arabian queen;
She was at her daily labour, a-reaping of her rushes green.

I stood and looked all round me, no other one there could I see
But me and my love Mary; I embraced her most tenderly.
She says, “Young man, be easy, don’t tease me but let me be;
Don’t you toss my rushes carelessly, great labour they have been to me.”

“If I toss your rushes carelessly, it’s more than I intend to do.
If I toss your rushes carelessly, a bonny bunch I’ll reap for you.”
“Come sit you down beside me, although you have led me astray;
Come sit you down beside me for the dew has scarce all gone away.”

So me and my love Mary sat down under a laurel tree
Where the small birds joined in chorus; their notes were in high Germany.
The thrush he joined in chorus while I embraced my Arabian queen;
It’s you I mean, my Mary, and your bonny bunch of rushes green.

They kissed, shook hands, and parted, although they were to meet again
To join their hands in wedlock bands and never more to part again.
It’s now they have got married, they’re out of sorrow, grief, and pain,
And he enjoys his Mary and her bonny bunch of rushes green.

Philip McDermott sings The Reaping of the Rushes Green

As I walked out one morning, It being in the merry month of May,
Me and my two white beagles, hoping to find some game to kill.
When I spied no one but Mary; she appeared to me like a virgin queen,
She being at her daily labour at the reaping of her rushes green.

She says, “Young man, be easy! Go on your way, aye, and let me be.
Do not toss or spoil my rushes, hard labour I have toiled by thee.”
“If I toss or spoil them carelessly, a far greener bunch I’ll reap for thee.
So sit you down beside me; some pleasant stories I’ll tell thee.”
“I know it’s hard to refuse thee, although you might lead me astray,
So I’ll sit down beside you ’til the morning dew melts fast away.”

As my love and I sat courting, it being ’neath yon green laurel tree,
And the small birds sang melodiously, changing their notes from tree to tree.
The larks sang loud in chorusly while I embraced my virgin queen,
Mary, my love Mary and her bonny bunch of rushes green.

Since my love and I got married great riches she has gained by me.
She has servants to attend her and to keep her from all slavery.
Her waist grew long and slender. This whole wide world I’d reign for her,
For Mary, my love Mary and her bonny bunch of rushes green.

Len Graham sings The Rushes Green

It was early in the morning, to the green fields I took my way
With my two hunting beagles in order there some game to see.
There I spied none but Mary whom I embraced most tenderly,
She was at her daily labours at the reaping of the rushes green.

As I looked all around me to view what persons I could see,
There I spied none but Mary whom I embraced most tenderly.
She says, “Young man go easy, go your way and let me be.
Don’t toss my rushes carelessly, hard labour I have gained by thee.”

“If I toss your rushes carelessly a greener bunch I’ll reap for you,
But sit you down beside me and a pleasant story I’ll tell you.”
“It’s hard kind sir to refuse you, although your false love had led me astray,
But I ’ll sit down beside you ’till the morning dew does fade away.”

Me and my love sat courting beneath yon green wood laurel tree,
And the small birds sang melodiously, exchanging their notes from tree to tree.
The lark she joins in chorus as I embrace my virgin queen,
Oh, Mary, my love Mary and her bonny bunch of rushes green.

Me and my love got married, great riches she has gained by me.
She has servants for to wait on her and to keep her from her slavery.
Her waist so small and slender, the whole wide world I would range around
With Mary, my love Mary, and her bonny bunch of rushes brown.