> John Kirkpatrick > Songs > God Speed the Plough
The Farmer’s Toast / God Speed the Plough
[
Roud 1603
; Master title: The Farmer’s Toast
; Ballad Index OLoc030
; DT GDSPDPLW
, GDSPDPL2
; Mudcat 11185
, 39751
; trad., tune Eric Winter]
Frank Purslow: Marrow Bones Colm O Lochlainn: Irish Street Ballads
This song, probably from early in the 19th century, is known under various titles: The Farmer’s Toast, Success to the Farmer, Jolly Farmer, and God Speed the Plough. The well-known tune Speed the Plough (played by e.g. The Morris Motor Band in a historic recording on Tap Roots: A History of the New Wave of English Country Dance Music, the Albion Band on Lark Rise to Candleford, and Spiers & Boden on Vagabond) is not related to this.
Muckram Wakes sang The Farmer’s Arms in 1976 on their eponymous Trailer album, Muckram Wakes. Eric Winter noted:
I first found the words of the chorus and third verse of this song on a jug belonging to my grandmother, and they were commonly used as a decoration in Victorian times. All famous ironstone makers produce pieces bearing some or all of the text in patterns of varying quality to this day. A full version may be found in print in Colm Ó Lochlainn’s Irish Street Ballads. The tune, as it appeared in this volume, did not appeal to me at all, and the one now commonly used by English revivalist singers was composed on the way to work one morning, between West Bere Road and Kilburn underground station.
Folly Bridge sang The Farmer’s Toast in 1991 on their WildGoose cassette All in the Same Tune. Claire Lloyd noted:
A celebration of a farmer’s life, in the days before agribusiness and the Common Agricultural Policy. It is also known as The Jolly Farmer and God Speed the Plough.
Originally published as a broadside in the early 19th century, the verses can be found on plates and mugs produced at the time, and I’ve even seen it on a stone plaque somewhere. Nobody knows who wrote it, but he was probably not a farmer.
Ian Giles sang I Have Parks, I Have Hounds on The Mellstock Band’s 1995 Saydisc album Songs of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex. The liner notes commented:
Source: Gardiner, H.912, from Frank Gamblin (65), Portsmouth Workhouse, August 1907. Another song of the milkmaids in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, ch. lxix
Community choirs from the Test Valley sang The Farmer’s Arms in 2001 on their WildGoose album Beneath Our Changing Sky. The liner notes commented:
The set of words known as The Farmer’s Arms or The Farmer’s Toast occur in several places in Hampshire. It is a favourite inscription on pottery vessels in many parts of the country and this tune was set to it during the mid-20th century by the late Eric Winter, in which form it became popular in the folksong movement.
Bob Lewis from Saltdean sang The Farmer’s Toast in a 2002 home recording made by Peter Collins. It was released in the following year on Lewis’ album The Painful Plough. Vic Smith noted:
Considering how much this is sung amongst the current generation of enthusiasts, references to this song in the tradition are very limited. Roud gives only one, the version that is in Frank Purslow’s Marrow Bones which was collected by Gardiner from Frank Gamblin in Portsmouth Workhouse in 1907.
Jon Boden sang The Farmer’s Toast as the 25 June 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.
John Kirkpatrick sang God Speed the Plough as the title track of his 2011 Fledg’ling CD of the Victorian farmer’s year in song, God Speed the Plough. He noted:
Many of the songs we think of as traditional folk songs have spent a good deal of their lives in print, on single sheets of paper that are referred to as ‘broadsides’ or ‘broadside ballads’ by folklorists, and simply as ‘ballads’, ‘ballad sheets’, or ‘ballets’ by the country folk who would buy them at markets and fairs from the hawkers and pedlars who earned their living from selling them.
As The Farmer, The Jolly Farmer, The Farmer’s Toast or The Farmer’s Grace, the words of this song were frequently reproduced on these ballad sheets. But they found an additional, more permanent home on plates, jugs, and mugs, originally made by the Liverpool potter Richard Abbey, as one of a series of tributes to various trades in this case “The Farmer’s Arms”, with a mock heraldic arrangement of various farm implements backed with a suitably worthy motto such as “The Husbandman’s Diligence Provides Bread”.
Considering how widely seen and well known the words must have been, it’s surprising that more tunes to go with them have not been collected. In the 1960s, the journalist and folk scene stalwart Eric Winter, who for many years edited a folk music magazine called “Sing”, found the words—with a tune—in a book of Irish songs that had been published in 1939. He didn’t think much of the tune he saw, and found the words rather flowery, so he picked parts of the verses to make a shorter version of the song, and composed this beautiful melody to go with it. Along with a good number of other fledgling folkies of the early 1960s, I found the new song irresistible, and had to learn it at once. By the time the EFDSS published the book Marrow Bones in 1965, with the only other known tune in it (from Hampshire) Eric Winter’s version of the song—which he called The Jolly Farmer—had already become standard on the English folk scene.
Dick Lewis accompanied by Meg Larson and Alan Shusterman sang Long Life and Success to the Farmer at the pub sing at the Caldera Public House in Portland, Oregon, in May 2012 or earlier:
Danny Spooner and Duncan Brown sang The Farmer’s Anthem in 2016 on their CD of songs of the working life, Labour and Toil. They noted:
An idyllic picture of the pleasures of farming life in the 18th century (whilst not mentioning the tough work and hardships of the profession!). Danny learned this at school and was reminded of it by the English singer Martyn Wyndham-Read in the 1980s.
Kate Rusby sang The Farmer’s Toast in 2019 on her Pure album Philosophers, Poets & Kings.
Kirsty Merryn sang The Farmer’s Toast as a hidden bonus track on her and Ben Walker’s 2021 EP Life and the Land.
Lyrics
Folly Bridge sing The Farmer’s Toast
Come all jolly fellows who delight in being mellow
Attend unto me I beseech you
For a pint when it’s quiet, come boys let us try it
For thinking will drive a man crazy
Chorus (repeated after each verse):
I have lawns, I have bowers, I have fields, I have flowers
And the lark is my daily alarmer
So jolly boys now, here’s God speed the plough
Long life and success to the farmer
Come sit at my table, all those who are able
And I’ll hear not one word of complaining
For the tinkling of glasses all music surpasses
And I long to see bottles a-draining
For here I am king, I can laugh, drink and sing
And let no man approach as a stranger
Just show me the ass who refuses a glass
And I’ll treat him to hay in a manger
Let the wealthy and great roll in splendour and state,
I envy them not, I declare it
For I eat my own ham, my own chickens and lamb
And I shear my own fleece and I wear it
Were it not for my seeding you’d have but poor feeding
I’m sure you would all starve without me
But I am content when I paid my rent
And I’m happy when friends are about me.
Ian Giles sings I Have Parks, I Have Hounds
Come all jolly fellows that loves to be mellow,
Attend unto me and sit easy.
Ajar when its quiet, now boys we will try it,
Dull thinking will make a man crazy.
For here I am king, let us drink, laugh and sing,
Let no man appear as a stranger.
For the jingling of glasses all music surpasses,
I like to see bottles a-draining.
Fal le ral le ral lal,
Fal le ral le ral lee,
I like to see bottles a-draining.
Chorus:
1 have parks, I have hounds,
I have fields, I have grounds,
The lark is my daily alarmer.
So my jolly boys now that follows the plough,
Drink health and success to the farmer.
Was it not for my seeding you’d get but poor feeding,
I’m sure you would all starve without me.
I’m always content when I’ve paid my rent
And happy when friend’s are about me.
Let the wealthy and great roll in splendour and state,
I envy them not I declare it.
I will eat my own lamb, my own chicken and ham,
I’ll shear my own sheep and I’ll wear it.
Jon Boden sings Farmer’s Toast
Come each jolly fellow who seeks to be mellow
Attend unto me and sit easy
For a pint when it’s quiet, my lads, let us try it
For thinking will drive a man crazy
Chorus (after every other verse):
I have lawns, I have bowers, I have fruit, I have flowers
And the lark is my morning alarmer
So my jolly boys now here’s good luck to the plough
Long life and success to the farmer
Draw near to my table, my lads, if you’re able
Let me hear not one word of complaining
For the tinkling of glasses all music surpasses
And I love to see bottles a-draining
For here I am king, I will dance, drink and sing
Let no man appear as a stranger
And show me the ass who refuses a glass
And I’ll treat him to hay in a manger
Let the wealthy and great roll in splendour and state,
I envy them not, I declare it
For I eat my own ham, my own chicken and lamb
I shear my own fleece and I wear it
By ploughing and sowing, by reaping and mowing
King nature affords me aplenty
I’ve a cellar well stored and a plentiful board
And a garden affords every dainty