>
Joseph Taylor >
Songs >
Sprig o’ Thyme
>
Anne Briggs >
Songs >
Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
>
June Tabor >
Songs >
Let No Man Steal Your Thyme / The Seeds of Love
The Sprig of Thyme / The Bunch of Thyme / Let No Man Steal Your Thyme / Come All You Garners Gay
[
Roud 3
; Master title: The Sprig of Thyme
; Ballad Index FSWB163
, R090
, DTthymep
; VWML GG/1/9/547
, GG/1/5/270
; GlosTrad
Roud 3
; MusTrad DB29
; DT THYMEPRE
, THYMSPRG
; Mudcat 3959
, 110437
; trad.]
Sabine Baring-Gould, Henry Fleetwood Sheppard: Songs of the West Lucy Broadwood: English County Songs J. Collingwood Bruce, John Stokoe: Northumbrian Minstrelsy Fred Hamer: Garners Gay Frank Kidson: Traditional Tunes William Henry Long: A Dictionary of the Isle of Wight Dialect Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger: Travellers’ Songs From England and Scotland Patrick O’Shaughnessy: Twenty-One Lincolnshire Folk Songs Roy Palmer: Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams Frank Purslow: Marrow Bones James Reeves: The Everlasting Circle Steve Roud, Julia Bishop: The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs Cecil Sharp: One Hundred English Folksongs Stephen Sedley: The Seeds of Love
Joseph Taylor sang Sprig o’ Thyme twice in 1908 on a wax cylinder recording for Percy Grainger; this was published in 1972 on the Leader album Unto Brigg Fair. The album’s booklet commented:
Popularly felt to be (with its closely related analogue, The Seeds of Love) a distant relative of The Gardener—Child No. 219. The song has frequently been collected but was not it seems, a song that appeared saleable as far as the broadside printer was concerned.
Jean Ritchie sang Keep Your Garden Clean in 1952 on her Elektra album Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Traditional Kentucky Mountain Family. Edward Tatnall Canby noted:
A version from the Ozark mountains of The Seeds of Love, [the] first English tune collected by Cecil Sharp, and a fascinating example of the ancient flower symbolism found in every art and literature. Thyme (not “time”) is the flower of youth and innocence; rue is for experience—sadder and wiser. The primrose is bright happiness—the willow the tree of weeping. A song most expressive of age-old, worldly-wise femininity.
Cynthia Gooding sang The Sprig of Thyme in 1953 on her Elektra album of early English folksongs, Queen of Hearts. She noted:
The Sprig of Thyme uses the same imagery as does one of Ophelia’s songs. In the 19th Century this song was said to have sprung to the mind of a provincial lady, sorely tried by her husband’s extravagances, but it has since been proven to have lurked in her mind since childhood as the folk song it is. This, one of the few versions which does not wander off into another song, The Seeds of Love, was collected before 18S0.
Jean Hopkins of East Grinstead, Sussex, sang The Sprig of Thyme in March 1957 to Mervyn Plunkett. This recording was released in 1961 on the Collector EP Four Sussex Singers. Plunkett noted:
Jean Hopkins is twenty-seven and a native of East Grinstead, Sussex. Her family belongs to West Firle in the South Downs and her grandfather and his brothers were well-known singers. Jean’s family call this song You Lads and You Lasses, but the title used here is that generally applied by academic students of the tradition to this close relative of the well-known Seeds of Love. These two versions of the song occur with equal frequency (Jean’s grandfather had both) but the Sprig of Thyme variant is probably the older of the two and both are likely to have originated in the very remote past.
Isla Cameron sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme on her and Ewan MacColl’s 1958 Riverside album English and Scottish Love Songs and on their 1960 Topic album Still I Love Him. This recording was also included in 1964 on the Topic sampler Folk Songs: Topic Sampler No 1. A second recording on her 1962 Transatlantic album Songs of Love, Lust and Loose Living was reissued in 2006 on the Castle anthologies Anthems in Eden and Scarborough Fair. A.L. Lloyd noted on the 1960 album:
One of the most famous of all English love-songs, and a celebrated piece of erotic symbology. Out of this song grew another, still more famous, called The Seeds of Lave, which was the first folk song Cecil Sharp ever noted (from the vicarage gardener of Hambridge, Somerset). Also known as The Sprig of Thyme, it has wandered across to Ireland, and it is an unpublished Irish version that Miss Cameron sings here, learned from a recording in the B.B.C.’s Recorded Programmes Library.
William Bartle of Wrestlingforth, Bedfordshire, sang Come All You Garners Gay on 19 August 1960 to Fred Hamer. This recording in 1989 on the EDFSS cassette of Hamer’s field recordings, The Leaves of Life, and in 1998 on the EFDSS CD A Century of Song.
Peggy Seeger sang When I Was in My Prime in 1962 on her Topic EP Early in the Spring. This track was also included in 1996 on her Fellside anthology Classic Peggy Seeger. She noted:
The song’s highly ornamented melody demands unaccompanied singing. It is a variant of the widely found Sprig of Thyme and Seeds of Love and follows the textual pattern of these songs. There is considerable symbolism in the imagery of the text, but this version is perhaps easier of interpretation than many, and could mean that a woman, no longer young, Is regretting.
A 19 years young Anne Briggs sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme at the Edinburgh Festival in 1963 where it was recorded by Bill Leader for the album Edinburgh Folk Festival Vol. 2. This track was later included on her 1999 Topic compilation A Collection.
Dorset gypsy Caroline Hughes sang The Running, Running Rue (Plenty of Thyme) to Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in 1963 or 1966. This recording was included in 2014 on her Musical Traditions anthology Sheep-Crook and Black Dog. Rod Stradling noted:
One might presume that the popularity of this archetypal southern English love song (nearly 300 Roud entries) stems from the fact of it being the first song Cecil Sharp collected from the oh-so-appropriately named John England, in Hambridge, Somerset, in 1903. However, the earliest printed versions date from the eighteenth century, and there were many earlier collections, so it seems, simply, that it was a very popular song and no surprise at all that Mr England should have chosen it to sing.
In essence, it’s a very old song, and belongs to that class of songs and ballads (going back at least to A Nosegaie Alwaies Sweet… included in A Handful of Pleasant Delights, 1584) which centre around the symbolism of flowers—thyme for virginity, rue for its loss, rose for passion, willow for regret, etc.
Over the years the song has turned up repeatedly, usually with little textual or melodic variation. Both Catnach and Such printed the song in London, as did Sanderson in Edinburgh, Swindells in Manchester, Collard in Bristol, Taylor in Birmingham and Ward in Ledbury, and most English collectors have noted at least one version of the song. Roud lists 297 instances, almost all from England, of which 51 are sound recordings.
Another recording of Caroline Hughes singing The Sprig of Thyme to Peter Kennedy in her caravan near Blandford, Dorset, on 19 April 1968 was included in 2012 on the Topic anthology I’m a Romany Ray (The Voice of the People Volume 22).
Cyril Poacher sang The Bunch of Thyme in a recording made by Neil Lanham in Blaxhall, Suffolk, very probably at the Blaxhall Ship, in 1964-5. This was included in c.2000 on the Helions Bumpstead anthology Songs From the Idiom of the People of Blaxhall (Voice of Suffolk Vol. 10). Cyril Poacher also sang Plenty of Thyme at home, Grove Farm, Blaxhall, Suffolk, to Tony Engle and Keith Summers in August or September 1974. This recording was included in 1975 on Poacher’s Topic album of traditional songs from Suffolk, The Broomfield Wager and in 1998 on the Topic anthology We’ve Received Orders to Sail (The Voice of the People Volume 12). Another recording of Plenty of Thyme sang by Cyril Poacher with an additional fifth verse, made by Ginette Dunn on 3 October 1974 was included in 1999 as the title track of his Musical Tradition anthology Plenty of Thyme. Rod Stradling noted:
Cyril Poacher learned this fine song from George Spencer Leake, a merchant seaman from Snape who was nicknamed ‘Good Old 71’. Plenty of Thyme, or The Sprig of Thyme / Seeds of Love as it is better known—though Garners Gay seems a far closer relative to Cyril’s version—belongs to that class of songs and ballads (going back at least to A Nosegaie Alwaies Sweet… included in A Handful of Pleasant Delights, 1584) which centre around the symbolism of flowers—thyme for virginity, rue for its loss, rose for passion, willow for regret, etc. Cyril’s mildly patriotic final verse also appears in some other collected versions, possibly put there by Henry Parker Such who was the last broadside printer to publish the song.
The leading nineteenth century music-antiquarian, William Chappell included Seeds of Love as one of the three most popular songs with servant-maids of his time (1859). It doesn’t turn up in the written record until 1816, although one characteristic verse appears in a version of The Gardener printed in a Scottish chapbook in 1766. It wasn’t common on broadsides, but was widely collected in Britain and North America.
LaRena Clark sang Thyme ’Tis a Pretty Flower on her 1965 Topic album recorded by Edith Fowke, A Canadian Garland. Edith Fowke noted:
This little lyric obviously belongs to the same family as The Seeds of Love and The Spring of Thyme, but the lady in this garden is wiser than her sisters for she ‘let no one steal her thyme’. The play on the words ‘thyme’ and ‘time’ is also unusual. Most versions do not have it, but it does turn up in one given by Frank Kidson in his Traditional Tunes. His third stanza corresponds to Mrs Clark’s refrain, and his last stanza to her first and third. For other references see The Seeds of Love and The Spring of Thyme in Dean-Smith’s A Guide to English Folk Song Collections and John Harrington Cox’s Folk Songs of the South.
Sara Cleveland of Brant Lake, New York, sang The Maiden’s Lament to Sandy Paton in 1965. This recording was included in 1968 on her Folk-Legacy album Ballads & Songs of the Upper Hudson Valley.
A home demo of 1966 by Sandy Denny—where she just sang the first verse of Let No Man Steal Your Thyme—was included in 1994 on her and Trevor Lucas’ cassette Together Again - The Attic Tracks Vol. 4, in 2010 on the Sandy Denny Box Set, and in 2022 on her LP Early Home Recordings.
Paul McNeill sang Come All You Fair and Tender Girls in 1966 on his Decca album Traditionally at The Troubadour. He noted:
Learned from the singing of Anne Briggs. For me one of the most lovely tunes in existence. It should be sung by a woman. but I try.
Jacqui McShee sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme in 1968 as the opening track of Pentangle’s first album, The Pentangle. This track was included on a lot of anthologies, the best of them being the 1975 Electric Muse: The Story of Folk Into Rock and the 2002 The Acoustic Folk Box. Karl Dallas noted in the accompanying booklet:
The first song Cecil Sharp ever collected, from a gardener called John England (!), was a variant of this song, in which flower symbolism is used in a manner reminiscent of Ophelia’s mad speeches in Hamlet. (Shakespeare probably knew the song, since it is a good deal older than Sharp; it was first noted in 1689).
Shelagh McDonald recorded Let No Man Steal Your Thyme in March 1970 for her Album. This was also included in 1974 on the B&C/Mooncrest anthology Rave On.
Jon Rennard sang The Sprig of Thyme live at the Bate Hall Folk Club in Macclesfield, in November 1970. This recording was included in the following year on his Traditional Sound album The Parting Glass.
The Broadside sang The Sprig of Thyme on their 1971 album of Lincolnshire folk songs, The Gipsy’s Wedding Day. They noted:
A fine version and one of many songs collected sixty-odd years ago by Percy Grainger from Joseph Taylor (of Saxby-All-Saints), whose gramophone discs issued by HMV in 1908 made recording history. The song has been filled out by John Conolly with verses from another version.
Bonnie Dobson sang Thyme in 1972 on her eponymous Argo album Bonnie Dobson. This track was also included in 1973 on the Argo anthology The World of Folk Vol. 2.
Oak sang the The Bunch of Thyme live at The Down River Folk Club, King William IV, Walthamstow on 19 December 1972, Oak’s final gig. A recording of it was in included in 2003 on their Musical Traditions CD Country Songs and Music.
Derek Sarjeant and Hazel King sang Thyme It Is a Precious Thing on their 1973 album Folk Matters. They noted:
A song learnt orally from Barrie Roberts of Walsall. A variant of The Sprig of Thyme.
Spriguns of Tolgus sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme on their 1975 album Jack With a Feather.
Derek, Dorothy & Nadine Elliott sang Sprig o’ Thyme in 1976 on their Traditional Sound album Yorkshire Relish.
Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise sang Bunch o’ Thyme in 1976 on their eponymous Autogram album Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise.
Vera Aspey sang Sprig of Thyme in 1977 on her Topic album The Blackbird. She noted:
The most unlikely place one would expect to find a symbolic song such as this is in a book called Songs for Girl Guides, but that is where I found it. This version was collected by H.E.D. Hammond, in conjunction with Cecil Sharp. Thyme is said to represent virginity, and rue is supposed to stand for regret, which leaves little to the imagination in arriving at the sense of the song.
John Roberts and Tony Barrand sang Garners Gay live at Holstein’s, North Lincoln, Chicago, in November 1982, which was released in the following year on their Golden Hind album Live at Holsteins!. And John Roberts and Debra Cowan sang Garners Gay in 2015 on their CD Ballads Long & Short where they noted:
Fred Hamer was an avid morris dancer, and when he went blind in the early 1950s he turned his attention to collecting folk songs, particularly around his home in Bedfordshire and in other areas not well covered by others. He used Garners Gay as the title of his first published collection of traditional songs. It’s a version of The Sprig of Thyme, closely related to The Seeds of Love, embodying notions of the symbolism of flowers and herbs common in many rural English songs. The song has been a staple of the Roberts & Barrand repertoire for many years.
John Roberts and Tony Barrand also sang Sprig of Thyme in 1998 on their Golden Hind album of English folksongs collected by Percy Grainger, Heartoutbursts. They noted:
A number of related laments share the symbolism of thyme as virginity, the rose as true love, the willow as false love, and so on, The Seeds of Love being perhaps the best-known. This version is from Joseph Taylor.
Sheena Wellington sang Bunch o’ Thyme in 1986 on her Dunkeld album Kerelaw. She noted:
I had this song from my grandmother, Mary Morrison Thoms (1874-1962) who had learned it from her mother’s mother. For Auntie Liz.
Heather Heywood sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme in 1987 on her Greentrax album Some Kind of Love. She noted:
There are lots of versions of this song and this is another of those songs which I never consciously learned. I heard it sung by an English girl in Sundrum folk club some years ago but have no idea how it compared to the original.
Herbert ‘Sugar’ Bailey of Shallow Bowells sang Bunch of Thyme in ca. 1989. This recording was included in 2010 on the Veteran anthology of Essex ongs, tunes and stepdances from the Sam Steele collection, The Fox and the Hare. John Howson noted:
This song is related to one of the most collected forms of English folk songs, often known as Sprig of Thyme, Plenty of Thyme and as The Seeds of Love it was the first song Cecil Sharp noted down in 1903. Although popular in both England and North America, it was obviously not seen as saleable by broadside printers as imprints by Bebbington (Manchester ) and Forth (Hull) are two of the surprisingly few examples. Ralph Vaughan Williams noted down versions from James Punt of East Horning, Essex in 1904 and Billy Waggs of Orwell, Cambridgsehire in 1908. Later the song crossed to Ireland and was re-shaped and Sugar Bailey’s version with it’s reference to the lusty sailor, probably has its origins there. In recent years it was popularised by Foster and Allen who turned it into a hit record.
The Wilson Family sang Sprig o’ Thyme in 1991 on The Wilson Family Album on Harbourtown Records.
June Tabor recorded Let No Man Steal Your Thyme in 1992 for her album Angel Tiger, and she sang The Seeds of Love live at the Electric Theatre, Guildford, on 13 March 2004. This recording was included in 2005 on her 4 CD anthology Always.
Maggie Boyle sang Sprig of Thyme in 1992 on Steve Tilston’s and her album Of Moor and Mesa. They noted:
A deceptively pretty sexual parable, different versions of which are still widely sung in England and Ireland.
Vic Legg of the West Country travelling family, the Orchards, sang Garners Gay in 1994 on his Veteran Tapes cassette of Cornish family songs, I’ve Come to Sing a Song.
Sarah McQuaid sang an unusual version of Sprig of Thyme in 1997 on her first CD, When Two Lovers Meet. Her version can be found in the “Notes on the Songs” section of Sabine Baring-Gould’s Songs of the West (1913); it was collected from Joseph Dyer of Mawgan in Pyder. Sarah McQuaid noted:
I learned this song, in thoroughly appropriate trad fashion, from my mother. There are a lot of songs in the Irish, English and Scottish folk traditions that are based on a similar theme, with thyme signifying innocence/virginity. However, I haven’t come across this particular version anywhere else.
Coope Boyes & Simpson sang The Sprig of Thyme in 1998 on their No Masters CD Hindsight with words almost identical to Joseph Taylor’s. This track was also included in 1999 on their anthology What We Sing. They noted:
From Joseph Taylor of Saxby All Saints, Linconshire, one of Barry [Coope]’s favourite singers—not only for the quality of his voice and performance but also for the fact that he sang for money. His repertoire of songs has been used by numerous Revival luminaries. This song is from one of the earliest recordings of English traditional songs on wax cylinders made by Percy Grainger in July 1906.
John Roberts & Tony Barrand sang Sprig of Thyme on their 1998 album of English folksongs collected by Percy Grainger, Heartoutbursts.
Niamh Parsons sang In My Prime in 2000 as the title track of her Green Linnet album In My Prime and at the 2009 Irish Folk Festival: Between Now and Then tour in Germany. She noted on her album:
A song Anne [Parsons-Dunne] and myself have been singing for years, ever since Anne learnt it from Jacqui McShee from a Pentangle album about 25 years ago.
Margaret Bennett sang Bonnie Bunch o Thyme in 2001 on her Foot Stompin’ CD In the Sunny Long Ago…. She noted:
There are versions of this song all over the English-speaking world. When it comes to warning against anyone ‘stealing your thyme’ I am equally inclined to write ‘time’ these days. According to the modern day press time seems to be at a greater premium than thyme, the ancient symbol for virginity. Either way, the word of caution is no bad thing. I have to admit it’s the chorus that makes me keep singing it for I love to hear folk join in.
Martin Young sang Come All You Garners Gay on his 2001 CD Botany Bay.
Sue Harris sang Sprig of Thyme in 2002 on her Beautiful Jo album Pastorela. She noted:
A song collected by Cecil Sharp in Somerset. Known also as The Seeds of Love.
Mike Bosworth sang Sprig of Thyme on his 2004 album of songs from the Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould Collection, By Chance It Was. He noted:
From the singing of Joseph Dyer of Mawgan in Pydar, Cornwall. James Parsons gave a version of this, but he mixed it with The Seeds of Love, which Sabine thought confusing, so he rewrote the words which are in Songs of the West. The words of Joseph Dyer, Sabine believed, were the complete set.
Logic sang The Bunch of Thyme in 2004 on their album Shades of Ireland.
Sarah Morgan sang The Sprig of Thyme in 2005 on the Hampshire half of the Forest Tracks album Folk Songs From Hampshire and Dorset. And a home demo of Sarah Morgan singing Sprig o’ Thyme was included in 2014 on her posthumous WildGoose anthology Only Remembered. Paul March noted on the first album:
From the singing of David Marlow in Basingstoke Workhouse, September 1906 [VWML GG/1/9/547] , with additions from Moses Blake, Emery Down, Lyndhurst, May 1906 [VWML GG/1/5/270] .
Purslow describes this as “A ‘classic’ of English folk song which has now become somewhat intermingled with The Seeds of Love. Unfortunately the issue has become even more confused as the tunes of the two songs have become almost interchangeable. Both songs were printed by just about every press in England during the last century (19th), usually in confused versions and under an assortment of names.”
Audrey Smith sang Garners Gay on the 2005 Musical Tradition anthology of Songs From the Golden Fleece in Stroud. Rod Stradling noted:
I got this from Fred Hamer’s book of the same name, collected from William Bartle of Bedfordshire, not far from where I lived in Northamptonshire. It’s an extremely popular song (with 228 Roud instances), and just a part of that even bigger family of songs centred around flower/plant symbolism.
Marthy Tilston sang Sprig of Thyme in 2005 as the one traditional song on her album Bimbling. She noted:
An English folk song—My beautiful step mother Maggie Boyle would sing this song when I was young.
Lauren McCormick and Emily Portman sang Seeds of Love in 2007 on their privately issued EP Lauren McCormick & Emily Portman, and Lauren McCormick sang A Sprig of Thyme in 2012 on her WildGoose album On Bluestockings. She noted:
This might be my all time favourite song. Tune and verses from Joseph Taylor and extra verses from Pop Maynard. Emily Portman, Jim Causley and I realised that between us we knew about 7 versions of it, but I believe this is the most beautiful.
Eliza Carthy and Norma Waterson sang Bunch of Thyme in 2010 on their Topic CD Gift. The Waterson Family also sang it in a concert at Hull Truck Theatre on 15 August 2010 celebrating Norma’s 71st birthday. The recording of this concert was released in the following year on their DVD Live at Hull Truck. Another live recording from the Union Chapel in November 2010 was released in the following year on the DVD and CD The Gift Band Live on Tour. They noted on the original album:
This is one of those things that most traditional singers have a version of, and the verses are floating and shared by many different songs. A song like this sifts in through the top of your head over the years. We have no idea where we learned it.
This video shows Norma Waterson singing Bunch of Thyme, accompanied by Martin Carthy and Chris Parkinson, at the Royal Oak, Lewes on 18 March 2010:
Fernhill sang When I Was in My Prime on their 2011 album Canu Rhydd.
Keith Kendrick and Sylvia Needham sang Sprig o’ Thyme in 2012 on their WildGoose album Well Dressed. Kendrick noted:
I dread to think on how long I’ve been singing this song—it’s one of my all time favourites from one of my all time favourite singers: the unbeatable Joseph Taylor of Saxby-All-Saints in Lincolnshire. What I wouldn’t give to have met him!
Steve Roud included both The Seeds of Love and The Sprig of Thyme in 2012 in The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.
Lady Maisery sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme in 2013 on their CD Mayday. They commented:
Tales of love and loss will always resonate through time, and Let No Man Steal Your Thyme is part of a tradition of love songs which use heavy botanical symbolism to tell a story. It is another warning song, this time cautioning of the dangers of false lovers and we learnt it from a recording of Anne Briggs.
Josienne Clarke sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme in 2014 on her and Ben Walker’s CD Nothing Can Bring Back the Hour.
Alice Jones sang The Sprig of Thyme on 2014 on her and Pete Coe’s album celebrating the legacy of Frank Kidson, The Search for Five Finger Frank.
Peter and Barbara Snape sang Sprig of Thyme in 2014 on their CD Snapenotes. They noted:
The origin of this song is thought to be derived from a poem by Mrs Fleetwood of Habergham Hall, near Burnley. She died in 1703. She wrote it to console herself when, in 1689, her husband’s extravagances finally led to the loss of the family estate. Although there are many versions of this song all over Britain, this has to be my favourite. From Modern Songs and Ballads of Lancashire, published in 1866.
The FLK sang Thyme Is Love on their 2015 album Mummers.
Cupola:Ward sang Sprig of Thyme on their 2016 album Bluebell. They noted:
We have had some fun with the timing of this traditional ballad about how life flies by, especially if you fall in with the wrong people! Doug [Eunson] composed the optimistic and joyful tune [Playing for Thyme] in the middle.
Edward II sang A Sprig of Thyme on their 2016 album Manchester’s Improving Daily.
Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage sang Come All Ye Fair and Tender Maids on their 2016 album Before the Sun. They noted:
This comes from Hannah’s family singing days—where only her mum and sister and her would sing it. Having relented to having my manly grumbles on this Hannah went the whole hog and incorporated this slightly macabre schoolyard round to the ending!
Bob and Gill Berry sang Sprig of Thyme on their 2018 WildGoose CD Echoes of Alfred, where they noted:
This song is widely popular and is generally sung as a sweet ditty. We see it as a more despairing style of song with some great herb lore depicting the frailties of the human condition. This version was collected by Alfred Williams from David Sawyer with the first verse by George W. Gardiner from Mary A. (Polly) Gurd in the Tisbury Workhouse.
Heidi Talbot sang Sprig of Thyme in 2018 on her and John McCusker’s EP Love Is the Bridge Between Two Hearts. This track was also included in 2023 on the anthology The Best of John McCusker. Heidi Talbot noted on their album:
One of my earliest musical memories is hearing my mum and dad playing Foster and Allen’s version of A Bunch of Thyme. It’s one of our favourite folk songs.
Zoë Wren sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme on her 2019 EP Inspired and on her 2020 album Reckless River.
Sarah Matthews sang I Once Had a Sprig of Thyme on her duo with the late Jo May, Intarsia’s 2020 album Sistere. She noted:
A wonderful traditional song reflecting on the speed at which life seems to pass us by. Nestled in the heart of the track is this cheeky five time piece [Playing for Thyme] with a very appropriate title.
Rosie Hodgson sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme on her 2021 download EP Common or Garden. She noted:
I fell in love with this classic after a long obsession with Pentangle and the beautiful singing of Jacqui McShee. I later learned a lovely offshoot of this song-family called In My Prime from Georgia Lewis and this recording is a weaving-together of the two versions into my own.
Devin Hoff sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme on his 2021 album of songs of Anne Briggs, Voices From the Empty Moor.
Anna Tam sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme on her 2021 CD Anchoress. She noted:
I made a copy of this song on my first ever trip to the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House in London, not realising then that it was also the first song Sharp collected.
Kirsty Hannah sang Sprig of Thyme on her 2022 EP of folk songs from Lincolnshire, On the Humber Banks. She noted:
Sung by Joseph Taylor and phonographed by Percy Grainger in Brigg on 4 August 1906. I have had a strange relationship with the song over the years, but it now seems more pertinent to me than ever. The blackbird you can hear at the beginning and end sat on my chimney, gracing us with his daily melodies during spring and summer of 2022. If you listen closely you may also hear the bell of my little friend Runa.
Bella Hardy sang Sprig of Thyme on her 2022 CD Love Songs, where she noted:
Joseph Taylor sang this to Percy Grainger in 1908. I sing it in memory of Lincolnshire folk singer / collector Brian Dawson.
Stick in the Wheel with Jon1st sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme on their 2022 CD Perspectives on Tradition. They noted:
The sleeve notes for the record that we sampled in this track—a 1965 recording of sisters Lyn and Candy Geddes performing live at Leicester’s Couriers Club—share that the duo gleaned much of their own material from the collections of their local library. A nice moment of serendipity as we came across it while exploring Cecil Sharp House’s vinyl archives. In a way, our discoveries also mirrored the tradition of digging for samples in hip hop and dance music culture: looking to create something new out of fragments of sounds from the past and share their timeless messages. This resonated.
Iona Lane and Ranjana Ghatak sang Surya Pranam / Let No Man Steal Your Thyme in 2023 on their Hudson EP Cove.
Eleanor Dunsdon sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme in 2024 as the title track of her and Gregor Black’s EP Let No Man.
Painted Sky (George and Holly Brandon) sang The Sprig of Thyme on their 2024 album From the Blue.
Matt Quinn and Emily Portman sang Sprig of Thyme, as sung by Jean Hopkins on Four Sussex Singers, on Quinn’s 2024 download album Quinn the Roud: 1-10 in which he followed up Series 1 of his folk song podcast In the Roud with his own recordings of the Roud 1-10 songs.
Bridget Hayden sang When I Was in My Prime on her 2025 album with The Apparitions, Cold Blows the Rain.
Quinie sang Cam A Ye Fair on her 2025 album Forefowk, Mind Me. She noted:
A Scots translation of the commonly sung traditional song The Sprig of Thyme / Let No Man Steal Your Thyme, given challenge by Harry [Górski-Brown]’s pipes.
VARO with Lemoncello sang Let No Man Steal Your Thyme on their 2025 album of collaborations, The World That I Knew. They noted:
A classic folk song we learnt from the singing of Anne Briggs, in which young women are warned to be aware of the dangers of false lovers. Another theme that never gets old!
Lyrics
Joseph Taylor sings Sprig o’ Thyme
Once I had a sprig of thyme.
It prospered by night and by day;
Till a false young man came a-courting to me,
And he stole all me thyme away.
Thyme it is a precious thing,
And thyme it-e-will grow on,
And thyme it’ll bring all things to an end,
And so does my thyme grow on.*
The gardener was standing by.
I bid him choose for me.
He chose me the lily, aye, the violet and the pink,
But I really did refuse them all three.
It’s very well drinking ale,
And it’s nice to have a drop of wine,
But it’s far better sitting by the young man’s side**
That gain-ed this heart of mine.
* second recording ‘our thyme …’
** second recording ‘But I like sitting by the young man’s side …’
Anne Briggs sings Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
Come all you fair and tender girls
That flourish in your prime, prime,
Beware, beware, if you’re good and fair
Let no man steal your thyme, thyme,
Let no man steal your thyme.
For when your thyme it is past and gone
He’ll care no more for you, you.
And every place where your thyme was waste
Shall spread all o’er with rue, rue,
Shall spread all o’er with rue.
For woman is a branchy tree
And man a clinging vine, vine.
And from her branches carelessly
He takes what he can find, find,
He takes what he can find.
Caroline Hughes sings The Running, Running Rue
O now, come all you young maids and young men,
You come listening to just what I say;
Never you go wed in your garden so gay,
Never let no young girl steal away your thyme.
O it’s love, I’ve got plenties of thyme,
I’ve got thyme in my garden for you;
Now I’m just like a bit of grass that’s been tread down underfoot,
Give me time, I will rise and grow again.
O that running, running, running, running rue,
Now he runs all too soon for me;
O it’s I will cut down, oh, that running, running rue
And I’ll plant up the jolly oak tree.
O that purty William tree will freely grow,
He will freely now grow any higher;
Well, he’ll twist and he’ll twine to a true lovier’s knot,
And a rose wrappèd round my sweet briar.
Now, I walkèd my garden all down,
And I walkèd my garden along;
Well, in all in the midst of my pretty flowers grown,
There was one sprig of thyme could I find.
Now, my jolly old gardener stood by,
And I askedèd him to choose for me;
O he choosdèd me the violets, sweet lilies and the pinks,
Out of them I did gain them all five.
O stand off, oh stand off, my purty oak,
And ‘tis you, oh you now fade away;
O for I will be so true to that young maiden there
As the stars shine so bright in the sky.
Cyril Poacher sings Plenty of Thyme
Once I had plenty of thyme
I could flourish by night and by day,
’Til a saucy sailor lad, he chanced to come that way,
And he stole all my happy thyme away.
There was a gardener standing close by
And I asked him to choose them for me;
He chose to me the lily, the violet and the pink,
But I did refuse them all three.
For the lily will very soon fade,
And the violet is very much the same.
But as for the pink, I will give them all a fling
And he says I will tarry until June.
For in June comes that red and rosy bud,
And that is the flower for me.
For I ofttimes pluckèd off the red and rosy bud,
’Til I gained the goodwill of them three.
Now, it’s very well a-drinking of ale,
But it’s much better drinking of wine,
And it’s far better sleeping in a saucy sailor’s arms,
Where he stole away that fair heart of mine.
Now here is success to our Queen,
Likewise to our jolly Jack Tar.
We’ll drink and be merry and we’ll tarry out the moon,
And we’ll drink ’til the sun rise again.
O we’ll drink and be merry and we’ll tarry out the moon,
And we’ll drink ’til the sun rise again.
Cilla Fisher and Artie Trezise sing Bunch o’ Thyme
Come a’ ye maidens young and fair
A’ ye that are bloomin’ in yer prime
Aye be aware and keep yer garden square
And let no man steel awa yer bunch o’ thyme
For thyme it is a precious thing
And thyme brings a’ thing tae yer mind
Thyme wi its labours along wi a’its joys
O thyme brings a’ things tae an end
O once I had a bunch o thyme
I thought it never would decay
Until a saucy sailor he chanced to pass my way
An’ he stole away my bonny bunch o’ thyme
This sailor gaed tae me a rose
A rose that never would decay
He gaed it tae me tae keep me well minded
O’ the nicht he stole awa’ ma bunch o’ thyme
‘Sugar’ Bailey sings Bunch of Thyme
Now come all you maidens young and fair,
All you who that are blooming in your prime,
Always be aware and leave your garden fair,
Let no man steal away your thyme.
For thyme it is a precious thing,
And thyme brings all things to my mind,
Thyme with all its flavours, along with all its joys,
Thyme brings all things to my mind.
Once she had a bunch of thyme,
She thought it never would decay,
Then came a lusty sailor, who chanced to pass that way,
He stole her bunch of thyme away.
That sailor gave to her a rose,
A rose that never would decay,
He gave it to her, to keep her reminded,
Of when he stole her thyme away.
Now come all you maidens young and fair,
All you that are blooming in your prime,
Always be aware, and keep your garden fair,
Let no man steal away your thyme.
For thyme it is a precious thing,
And thyme brings all things to my mind,
Thyme with all its flavours, along with all its joys,
Thyme brings all things to an end,
Thyme brings all things to an end.
June Tabor sings Let No Man Steal Your Thyme
Come all you fair and tender girls
That flourish in your prime, prime,
Beware, beware, keep your garden fair
And let no man steal your thyme, thyme,
Let no man steal your thyme.
For when your thyme is past and gone
He’ll care no more for you, you.
For every place that your thyme was waste
Will all spread o’er with rue, rue,
Will all spread o’er with rue.
The gardener’s son, he was standing by,
Three flowers he gave to me, me.
The pink, the blue and the violet too
And the red, red rosy tree, tree,
And the red, red rosy tree.
But I forsook the red rose bush
And gained the willow tree, tree,
That all the world may plainly see
How my love slighted me, me
How my love slighted me.
For woman is a lofty tree
And man’s a clinging vine, vine,
And from her branches carelessly
He’ll take what he can find, find,
He’ll take what he can find.
(repeat first verse)
Sarah McQuaid sings Sprig of Thyme
In my garden grew plenty of thyme,
It would flourish by night and by day.
’Til along came a lad and he took all I had,
𝄆 Stole all my thyme away. 𝄇
And I was a damsel fair
But fairer I wished to appear,
So I bathed me in milk and I clothed me in silk
I 𝄆 put the sweet thyme in my hair. 𝄇
In June the red roses in bloom,
It was not the flower for me.
For I plucked the bud and it pricked me to blood
As 𝄆 I gazed on a willow tree. 𝄇
Now the willow tree it will twist
And the willow tree it will twine,
And I wish I were clasped in my lover’s arms fast
𝄆 ’Tis he that has stolen my thyme. 𝄇
And it’s very good drinking of ale
But it’s better for drinking of wine.
And I wish I were clasped in my lover’s arms fast
𝄆 ’Tis he that has stolen my thyme. 𝄇
Coope Boyes & Simpson sing Sprig o’ Thyme
Once I had a sprig of thyme.
It prospered be night and be day;
Till a false young man came a-courting to me,
And he stole all me thyme away.
O thyme it is a precious thing,
And thyme it will grow on,
And thyme it’ll bring all things to an end,
And so does me thyme grow on.
The gardener was standing by.
And I asked him choose for me.
And he chose me the lily, aye, the violet and the pink,
Ah, but surely I refused them all three.
O thyme it is a precious thing,
And thyme it will grow on,
And thyme it’ll bring all things to an end,
And so does me thyme grow on.
And it’s very well a-drinking ale,
And it’s nice to have a drop of wine,
Ah, but I like sitting by the young man’s side
That’s gain-ed this heart of mine.
O thyme it is a precious thing,
And thyme it will grow on,
And thyme it’ll bring all things to an end,
And so does me thyme grow on.
John Roberts and Tony Barrand sing Sprig of Thyme
Once I had a sprig of thyme;
It prospered by night and by day,
Till a false young man came a-courting to me,
And he stole all my thyme away.
The gardener was standing by.
I asked him to choose for me;
He chose me the violet, aye, the lily and the pink,
But I really did refuse all three.
For the violet I did not like,
Because it fades so soon,
The lily and the pink I do really overthink,
And I vowed I would wait till June.
For in June there is the red and rosy bud,
And that is the flower for me,
I pulled and I plucked at that red and rosy bud,
Till I gained the willow tree.
But thyme it is the prettiest thing,
And thyme it will prove kind,
And thyme it’ll bring all things to an end,
And so does my thyme go on.
Well, it’s very nice a-drinking ale,
And it’s nice to have a drop of wine,
O but I like sitting by that young man’s side,
That has gained this heart of mine.
Niamh Parsons sings In My Prime
When I was in my prime
I flourished like a vine;
There came along a false young man
𝄆 Come stole the heart of mine. 𝄇
A gardener standing by
Three offers he made to me:
The pink the violet and red rose,
𝄆 Which I refused all three. 𝄇
The pink’s no flower at all
For it fades away too soon,
And the violet is too pale a hue
𝄆 ⁄ think I’ll wait till June. 𝄇
In June the red rose blooms
That’s not the flower for me,
For then I’ll pluck the red rose off
𝄆 And plant a willow tree. 𝄇
And the willow tree shall weep
And the willow tree shall whine,
I wish I was in the young love’s arms
That stole the heart of mine,
Who stole the heart of mine.
If I live for one year more
And God will grant me grace
I’ll weep a bowl of crystal tears
𝄆 To wash his deceitful face. 𝄇
Audrey Smith sings Garners Gay
Come all you garners gay,
That are just now in your prime,
I wish I were in that young man’s arms,
Where I’ve been many’s the time.
Chorus (after each verse):
Where I’ve been many’s the time,
Where I’ve been many’s the time,
I wish I were in that young man’s arms,
Where I’ve been many’s the time.
O it’s all right drinking beer,
But it’s much better drinking wine,
And it’s better still sleeping in that young man’s arms,
Where I’ve been many’s the time.
Green willows they will twist,
Green willows they will twine,
I wish I were in that young man’s arms,
That stole away this heart of mine.
Once I had time enough,
To flourish night and day,
Until that man, that bonny young man,
Came and stole all my time away.
And now my time is all gone,
And I can plant no new,
For everywhere where the thyme once grew,
Is overrun with running, running rue.
O rue, you running, running rue,
You’re not the flower for me,
I’ll pluck up all that running, running rue,
And I’ll plant me the sturdy oak tree.
Stand fast, stand fast sturdy oak,
Stand fast and don’t ever die,
For I’ll prove as true to my own true love,
As the stars prove true to the sky.
John Roberts and Debra Cowan sing Garners Gay
Come all you garners gay
That are just now in your prime
I wish I was in that bonny girl’s arms
Where I’ve been many a time:
Where I’ve been many a time
Where I’ve been many a time
I wish I was in that bonny girl’s arms
Where I’ve been many a time.
Green willows they will twist
Green willows they will twine
I wish I was in that bonny girl’s arms
Where I’ve been many a time:
For it’s once I had thyme enough
And it flourished by night and day
Until that girl, that bonny, bonny girl
Come and stole all my thyme away:
So now my whole thyme is gone
And I cannot plant any new
For the very same place where the old thyme grew
It’s all over running, running rue:
O the rue, the running, running rue
It’s not the flower for me
I will pluck up all that running, running rue
And plant down the sturdy oak tree:
Stand you fast, stand you fast, sturdy oak
Stand you fast, don’t ever die
And I’ll prove as true to my own true love
As the stars prove true to the sky:
For it’s very nice drinking ale
And it’s far better drinking wine
But I like to sleep in that bonny girl’s arms
Where I’ve been many a time: