> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > The Trees They Grow So High
> Martin Carthy > Songs > The Trees They Do Grow High
> Steeleye Span > Songs > Long A-Growing
> Eliza Carthy > Songs > Growing (The Trees They Do Grow High)

The Trees They Do Grow High / The Trees They Grow So High / Growing / Long A-Growing / The Bonny Boy / Lady Mary Ann

[ Roud 31 ; Master title: The Trees They Do Grow High ; Laws O35 ; G/D 6:1222 ; Ballad Index LO35 ; The Trees They Do Grow High at Fire Draw Near ; Bodleian Roud 31 ; GlosTrad Roud 31 ; Wiltshire 1103 ; trad.]

Bertha Bidder collected The Trees They Grow So High in May 1905 in Stoke Fleming, Devon, from an unnamed female singer. This version was printed in 1959 in A.L. Lloyd’s and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.

Harry Cox of Catfield, Norfolk, sang a fragment of Young and Growing in October 1953 to Peter Kennedy. This recording was included in 2000 on his Rounder anthology What Will Become of England?.

Lizzie Higgins sang Lang A-Growin’ to Hamish Henderson in 1954. This recording was included in the early 1960s on the Prestige album Folksongs and Music From the Berryfields of Blair. Another recording with the title My Bonny Boy, made by Hamish Henderson and Sandy Paton in Aberdeen in September 1958, was included in 2000 on the Folk-Legacy anthology Ballads and Songs of Tradition. A third recording, made by Bill Leader on 5 January 1968, was released as The College Boy (Young Craigston) in the following year on her first Topic album, Princess of the Thistle. Peter Hall noted:

This moving song, known variously as The Bonny Boy Is Lang Lang A-Growin and The Trees They Do Grow High is popularly supposed to have had a factual basis in an arranged marriage in the early 17^th century. However, such marriages were once so common that to pick out one in particular seems entirely arbitrary. Tradition has it that the ballad is originally Scots but there is little concrete evidence of this and a number of the musical variants suggest an Irish ancestry. Lizzie’s tune is a fine and fitting pipe air.

Lizzie Higgins sang another version named Lady Mary Ann in 1975 on her Topic album Up and Awa’ Wi’ the Laverock. This track was also included in 1998 on the Topic anthology It Fell on a Day, a Bonny Summer Day (The Voice of the People Series Volume 17). Peter Hall noted on the original album:

Many traditional singers know more than one version of the same song and here Lizzie gives us another setting of The College Boy (The Bonnie Laddie’s Lang, Lang A-Growing, The Trees They Do Grow High) which appeared on her first LP. The text came from her father’s aunt, Jean Stewart, and it has something of the flavour of the printed page. Lizzie was dissatisfied with the melody used by her great-aunt and, at her father’s suggestion, put the words to a pipe tune Mrs MacDonald of Dunacht. The composer of the tune is supposed to have written it close to a reverberant wall, giving him echoes of some of the phrases which he then incorporated into his composition.

A further recording of Lizzie Higgins singing The College Boy at the Blairgowrie Folk Festival in between 1986 and 1995 was included in 2000 on the festival’s anthology The Blair Tapes.

A.L. Lloyd sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 1956 on his Tradition album The Foggy Dew and Other Traditional English Love Songs. In 1960, he sang it with the title The Trees They Grow So High on his album A Selection From the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Like all tracks from this LP it was reissued in 2003 on the CD England & Her Traditional Songs. Lloyd wrote in the album’s sleeve notes:

A ballad common all over the British Isles. Scottish, Irish and English versions resemble each other in text but not always in tune. In Irish sets, the young lovers are of more respectable age. There is a story that the ballad was made after the death in 1634 of the juvenile laird of Craigton who married a girl some years older than himself, and died within a short time. In fact, the song is probably older, and may have originated in the Middle Ages when the joining of two family fortunes by child-marriage was not unusual. Our tune was notated by Bertha Bidder from a woman in Stoke Fleming, Devon, some time before 1905.

Ewan MacColl sang Lang A-Growing in 1957 on his and A.L. Lloyd’s Riverside album Great British Ballads Not Included in the Child Collection.

Sandy Paton sang Daily Growing in 1959 on his Elektra album The Many Sides of Sandy Paton. Kenneth S. Goldstein noted:

It is not unheard of today for young men to marry older women for the money they can make from such an arrangement. Three or four centuries ago the shoe was on the other foot, however, and young boys were often paired off with older girls in order to increase the fortunes of the girl’s family. This old ballad is apparently based on an actual incident dating back to the seventeenth century, although variants have been collected throughout the English-speaking world.

May Bradley sang a fragment of Long A-Growing to Fred Hamer in Ludlow, Shropshire, in October 1959. This recording was included in 2010 on her Musical Traditions anthology Sweet Swansea. Rod Stradling noted in the accompanying booklet:

May Bradley’s skill is amply displayed in her penultimate verse, where the extra-long text “When me and you was sitting all alone” are effortlessly fitted into a modified melody. Beautiful!

Isla Cameron sang Still Growin’ in 1962 on her and Tony Britton’s Transatlantic album Songs of Love, Lust and Loose Living.

Jean Redpath sang Bonny Boy in 1962 on her Elektra album Scottish Ballad Book and she sang it as Lady Mary Ann on her 1976 album The Songs of Robert Burns Volume 1. She noted on the first album:

Like all the versions collected in recent years, this Irish variant of Lang A-Growin’ makes no attempt to identify the main characters. From the evidence contained in early printings however (e.g. Johnson’s Scots Musical Museum of 1792, where it appeared under the title of Lady Mary Ann and subsequent song-book versions called Young Craigston), it seems likely that there was in fact a specific historical occurrence, which Mr Kenneth S. Goldstein describes thus:

In 1631, Lord Craigston was married to Elizabeth Innes, several years his senior and eldest daughter of Sir Robert Innes, who had been appointed guardian of the young lord on the death of his parents. The young husband died three years later.

The consolidation and acquisition of family fortunes by such child marriages seems to have been a common practice up to the 18^th century. The traditional use of coloured ribbon is still practised in rural folk communities in parts of Britain and the continent. Still well known in oral tradition in Scotland and Ireland, this ballad is found rather infrequently in America.

Queen Caroline Hughes sang a fragment of Young But Growing to Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in between 1963 and 1966. This recording was included in 2014 on her Musical Traditions anthology Sheep-Crook and Black Dog.

Joe Heaney sang this song as My Bonny Boy Is Young in a recording session at Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger’s home in Beckenham in 1964. This was published in 2000 on his Topic CDs The Road From Connemara.

Lorna Campbell sang Lang A-Growin’ in 1965 on the Campbell Family’s Topic album The Singing Campbells. Peter A. Hall and Arthur Argo noted:

This ballad, although widespread, was not included in Professor Child’s famous anthology. It has been suggested that it is based on the marriage of the young Urquhart of Craigston to Elizabeth Innes about 1633, although many other such arranged marriages at this time or before may have been the origin.

Alex Campbell sang Long A-Growing at a concert on 16 August 1965 in Copenhagen, which was recorded and released in the same year on his Storyville album Alex Campbell in Copenhagen.

Martin Carthy sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 1965 as on his eponymous first album, Martin Carthy; this track was later included on the 1999 compilation Martin Carthy: A Collection. A live recording from the Sunflower Folk Club, Belfast, on 20 October 1978 was published in 2011 on his CD The January Man; and he returned to this song on Brass Monkey’s 2009 CD, Head of Steam. Martin Carthy noted on his first album:

The Trees They Do Grow High first appeared in print in 1792 under the title Lady Mary Ann and the young man is named as Young Charlie Cochran. In 1824 another version was printed as the Young Laird of Craigs Town with a note attached saying he had been married when very young, and had died shortly afterwards in 1634. There is no real evidence to suggest that the many English versions collected date back to this incident; indeed the ballad may well be older as child marriages of convenience were by no means uncommon in Mediaeval times.

Fred Jordan was recorded singing The Bpnny Boy by Bill Leader and Mike Yates in a private room in The Bay Malton Hotel, Oldfield Brow, Altringham, Cheshire, in 1966. This was released on his 1966 Topic album Songs of a Shropshire Farm Worker and included on the 1998 Topic anthology O’er His Grave the Grass Grew Green (The Voice of the People Series Volume 3). Another recording, made in 1982 by Sybil Clarke, is on Jordan’s 2003 Veteran anthology A Shropshire Lad. A.L. Lloyd noted on the first album:

England, Scotland and Ireland share this very favourite ballad, half a dozen broadside printers issued it during the nineteenth century, and Burns re-wrote it as Lady Mary Anny. Some say the story relates to the actual marriage of the boy laird of Craigton to a girl some years his senior in 1631, but in fact there’s no ground for this belief, and the ballad is probably older than that. This was another of Fred Jordan’s mother’s songs.

Pentangle sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 1968 on their second Transatlantic album, Sweet Child.

Ian Manuel sang Lang-A-Growing live at Folk Union One in 1969. This recording was included in the same year on the rare privately issued album Blue Bell Folk Sing which was finally reissued on CD in 2014.

Robin and Barry Dransfield sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 1970 on their first album, The Rout of the Blues on the Trailer label. Barry Dransfield also recorded it in 1994 with the title Bonny Boy for his CD Be Your Own Man. Their first album’s liner notes commented:

Barry first heard this song played by the Irish musicians who frequent the Roscoe public house in Leeds. He included it in his solo repertoire, but after he joined with Robin and after they both had been deeply impressed by the Fairport Convention at their Festival Hall concert during summer of 1969, they put together this closely integrated duet which, although it sounds as though Barry’s voice and fiddle might have been double tracked, in fact was performed as it is in a live performance.

Tony Rose sang The Trees They Do Grow High unaccompanied in 1971 on his second album, Under the Greenwood Tree. He noted:

The Trees They Do Grow High has been quite unashamedly learned from the version noted by Sharp from Harry Richards of Curry Rivel in Somerset. As Sharp states, the way in which the concluding strain of each verse is varied is a fine example of how lines of irregular length can be adapted to the same melody. As in the True Lovers tune, there is here the octave jump of which the old singers seem particularly fond.

George Dunn of Quarry Bank, Staffordshire, sang a fragment of The Trees They Do Grow High on 4 December 1972 to Roy Palmer. This recording was included in 2002 on his Musical Traditions anthology Chainmaker.

Mary Ann Haynes of Brighton, Sussex, sang Long A-Growing on 17 July 1974 to Mike Yates. This recording was included a year later on the Topic anthology of traditional songs from Sussex, Sussex Harvest, in 1998 on the Topic anthology Tonight I’ll Make You My Bride (The Voice of the People Series Volume 6), and in 2003 on the Musical Traditions anthology of gypsy songs and music from South-east England, Here’s Luck to a Man. Mike Yates noted:

One of the ballads that Professor Child failed to include in his major work. A.L. Lloyd, and others, have suggested a connection between the song and the marriage in 1631 of the juvenile Lord of Craigton to a girl some years his senior. But such marriages, often formed to consolidate family alliances, were not uncommon. For example, Prince Arthur, the first-born son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York died aged 15, shortly after marrying Catherine of Aragon, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. The song has proven highly popular with singers and versions, similar to that sung by Mary, have turned up all over the place.

Walter Pardon sang The Trees They Do Grow High at home in his cottage in Knapton, Norfolk, in May 1974. This recording made by Bill Leader and Peter Bellamy was issued in the following year on Walter Pardon’s Leader LP A Proper Sort. An alternative take was included in 2000 on his Topic CD A World Without Horses.

Steeleye Span recorded Long A-Growing in 1974 for their sixth album, the first one with drummer Nigel Pegrum, Now We Are Six.

Isabel Sutherland sang The Bonny Boy in 1974 on her eponymous EFDSS album Isabel Sutherland.

Brenda Wootton and Robert Bartlett sang The Trees They Grow So High in 1975 on their Sentinel album Starry-Gazey Pie. They noted:

This particular melody was collected from East Cornwall but it was sung throughout the county and in Devon too. The song tells the traditional Scottish story of the bonny lad, lang-a-growing.

Harry Brazil sang Long A-Growing to Gwilym Davies at Staverton, Gloucestershire on 27 November 1977. This recording was included in 2007 on the Brazil Family’s Musical Tradition anthology Down By the Old Riverside. The album’s booklet noted:

Roud shows this song to be widely known, with 181 entries from right across the Anglophone world, but with the majority from England. It is most usually titled The Trees They Do Grow High, but examples along the lines of Long A-Growing are also very frequent. Clearly its popularity endured until recently, since about one third of his entries are sound recordings.

Although the sad tale of such failed arranged marriages was universal, Aberdeenshire claims it firmly for the marriage and death three years later of the young Laird of Craigston in 1634, as attested by James Maidment in A North Country Garland (1824).

Traveller Nelson Penfold of Westlake, Devon, sang Young A-Growing to Sam Richards and Tish Stubbs in between 1974 and 1980. This recording was included in 1981 on the Folkways album An English Folk Music Anthology. The album’s booklet noted:

Nelson Penfold here sings another of the ballads that Child omitted. His rendition begins with a short spoken passage to set the scene, moving into song at what is variously found elsewhere as a second, third or even fourth verse. He says that the spoken passage is traditional, although often longer than he gives it.

The sense of the story usually revolves around an arranged marriage. Nelson’s version changes the sense. As in the other versions the boy is too young, although he fathers a son but dies soon after. Nelson has them, though, as two young lovers seeking parental consent, and sometimes calls the song “the tale of the little boy and the big maid”.

Jean Redpath sang Lady Mary Ann on her 1976 anthology The Songs of Robert Burns Volumes 1. She also sang College Boy on her 1977 album Song of the Seals on which she noted:

There is a theory that this ballad, so noticeably missing from Professor Child’s collection, is based on the marriage of Young Urquhart of Craigston to Elizabeth Innes c. 1633, the Laird of Innes having obtained guardianship of the boy and married him to his daughter for the sake of acquiring estates. A Young Laird of Craigston was printed in 1824. Such arranged marriages were so common, however that it would be a little arbitrary to pinpoint one. There is only one other version where the bridegroom is named, viz. Burns’ song Lady Mary Ann which was contributed to the Scots Musical Museum in 1792. His “young Charlie Cochran” is not a tragic hero, however.

I learned this from the singing of Lizzie Higgins.

John Goodluck sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 1977 on his Traditional Sound Recordings album Monday’s Childe.

Peter Bellamy sang The Trees They Do Grow High on his 1979 LP Both Sides Then. He laconically noted:

Learned from Walter Pardon of Knapton in Norfolk. (One verse omitted, one verse from a variant inserted).

The Tannahill Weavers sang Lady Mary Anne in 1979 on their eponymous Plant Life album The Tannahill Weavers. They noted:

Possibly our favourite song by Robert Burns, Scotland’s most famous poet, song writer, drinker and womanizer. In fact, a success in every field he entered.

Yorkshire Relish (Derek, Dorothy and Nadine Elliott) sang The Trees They Do Grow High on their 1980 Traditional Sound Recordings album An Old Family Business.

Ian Robb sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 1985 on his Folk-Legacy album Rose & Crown. He noted:

A slightly hybridised version of a very widely-sung ballad of arranged betrothal; most of the text and tune comes from the singing of the great Norfolk traditional singer, Walter Pardon. Thanks also to Peter Bellamy, from whom I first heard it.

Nick Dow recorded Catch Me If You Can for the BBC in 1989. This was included in 2020 on his Old House album Then As Now where he noted:

The Trees They Grow So High, The Broomfield Hill and Catch Me If You Can were all recorded for a radio documentary called “Marina”. This was the life story of Marina Russell of Upwey, Dorset, one of Hammond’s most prolific singers. The documentary was quite successful and was entered for a Sony award. (It did not win one though.) The songs are all in Mrs. Russell’s repertoire. The research and recording of the documentary was all done the hard way, before the option of the internet and digital recording, on miles of analogue tape. It later transpired there were several shortcomings in the research, and the record was put straight in the book Southern Harvest and also the magazine “Living Tradition”

Gill Bowman sang Lang A-Growin’ in 1990 on her Fellside CD City Love.

Janet Russell and Christine Kydd sang Lady Mary Ann in 1994 on their Greentrax CD Dancin’ Chantin’.

Eliza Carthy learnt this song from Walter Pardon and sang it with the title Growing (The Trees They Do Grow High) in 1995 on her and Nancy Kerr’s second album Shape of Scrape. The track was later included in their compilation CD On Reflection. Eliza Carthy also sang The Trees They Do Grow High on her 2024 album No Wasted Joy where she noted:

I loved Walter Pardon, growing up. It’s still a sadness to me that my much-mistreated little red Peugeot 205 finally exploded on the way down to Walter’s funeral, and I didn’t make it to say goodbye. He was a gentle soul and I sat on his knee when he sang for my parents one time, only stopping to exclaim “oh Eliza!” when I stuck my finger up his nose. Truly though if you haven’t encountered him before, do look up the Man Who Collected Himself, as we have a lot to thank him for. First recorded (and if you want sensible notes) on my second album with Nancy Kerr, Shape of Scrape.

Bob Copper sang The Trees They Do Grow High on the 1995 Veteran CD When the May Is All in Bloom. According to the liner notes, he “learned this version from Séamus Ennis while they were working together for the BBC in the 1950s.” John Copper sang it ten years later on the Fellside anthology of English traditional songs and their American variants, Song Links 2, with Tim Eriksen providing the American variant.

Ray Driscoll of Longborough, Leicestershire sang My Bonny Boy on 13 April 1996 to Gwilym Davies. This recording was included in 2008 on his CD Wild, Wild Berry.. Gwilym Davies noted:

Also known as Long A-Growing or The Trees They Grow High. Ray learnt several songs from his Irish father, who was also a fiddle player. This song was Ray’s favourite and demonstrates well his Irish style of singing.

Graham Metcalfe sang The Trees Grow High in 1996 on his WildGoose CD Songs From Yorkshire and Other Civilisations. He noted:

Some say the story relates to the actual marriage of the boy Laird of Craigton to an older girl in 1631. Some people say anything!

Billy Ross sang Lady Mary Ann on the 1996 Linn anthology The Complete Songs of Robert Burns Volume 1 and in 2000 on his Greentrax album Shore Street. He noted:

Lady Mary Ann appears in the Scots Musical Museum 1792 and was Burns’ rewrite of the traditional ballad Lang a Growin.

Gordeanna McCulloch sang My Bonnie Laddie’s Lang a’ Growin on her 1997 Greentrax album In Freenship’s Name. She noted:

Anne Conkie, a fellow member of Norman Buchan’s Ballad Club sang this regularly at school concerts. Although I loved it, I felt it was her song and later learned instead the Irish version, The Bonny Boy. Anne died while we were at school but I can still remember her singing. As I have always liked the ballad, I felt this was a good opportunity to both learn it and remember and old school friend whose growth, like the laddie in the ballad’s narrative was cut short.

Brian Peters and Gordon Tyrrall sang Long A-Growing in 2000 on their duo CD The Moving Moon.

Sangsters sang Lady Mary Ann in 2000 on their Greentrax album Sharp and Sweet.

Ellen Mitchell sang Lady Mary Ann on her and Kevin Mitchells’s 2001 Musical Traditions anthology Have a Drop Mair and a year later on her Tradition Bearers CD On Yonder Lea. She noted in the first album’s booklet:

Lizzie Higgins sang several versions of The College Boy and this is one of the happy ones. It is numbered as a Child ballad, but it was collected by Burns before it was collected by Child. I wonder what he did to it, if anything?

Terry Yarnell sang The Trees Grow High in 2001 on his Tradition Bearers CD A Bonny Bunch. He noted:

Is this the story of the young Laird of Craighton, who died in 1634? There is evidence that the tale was already an ‘old ballad’ by this time. Child marriages in order to contain wealth have been a common occurrence for the aristocracy throughout our history, and I find this more interesting than any specific historical basis. This particular version of this sad, but widespread song came from the singing of Joe Heaney, of Carna, in Connemara, one of the great Sean Nos singers of all time.

The Cecil Sharp Centenary Collective sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 2003 on their Talking Elephant CD As I Cycled Out on a May Morning.

Annie Grace sang The Trees They Grow High in 2004 on her Greentrax CD Take Me Out Drinking Tonight.

Bob Fox sang Still Growing in 2006 on his Topic CD The Blast. He noted:

This is the first folksong I ever learned to sing and play. I have used both of the tunes that I know and have compiled the words from many sources. Also known as The Young Laird of Craigston, it appears to be about the marriage of Lord Craigston to Elizabeth Innes who was several years his senior. He died shortly after, in 1634, of melancholy due to unpaid debts left by his own father.

Mary Humphreys and Anahata sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 2009 on their WildGoose CD Cold Fen. Mary Humphreys noted:

Sung to Ralph Vaughan Williams by ‘Ginger’ Clayton of Meldreth on 22 July 1907. The words are also included (in very faint pencil markings) under the tune. I can find no record of Mr Clayton in the vicinity of Meldreth at this time. He may have not been a resident—Meldreth had a number of breweries and he may have been a carter living elsewhere or an itinerant worker who escaped the census.

Jon Boden and Fay Hield learned The Trees They Do Grow High from Barry Dransfield’s album and sang it in a Bright Young Folk recording as the 22 September 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Kirsty Bromley sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 2011 on her privately issued EP Sweet Nightingale.

Barbara Dickson and Nick Holland sang Jamie Raeburn in 2011 on Dickson’s Greentrax album Words Unspoken.

Jim Moray sang The Trees They Do Grow High on Concerto Caledonia’s 2011 album Revenge of the Folksingers. His sister Jackie Oates sang The Trees They Are So High in the same year on her CD Saturnine.

Jeff Warner sang Young But Daily Growing in 2011 on his WildGoose album Long Time Travelling. He noted:

Also known as The Trees They Do Grow High, this is another song Lena Bourne Fish gave the Warners in 1940. Some see its origins with a young laird of Craigton, Scotland, who died in 1634, three years after his marriage to a woman several years his senior. Others say it is an even older song. It’s not in the Francis James Child collection of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. But it probably should be.

Maggie Boyle sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 2012 on her CD Won’t You Come Away. She noted:

From the singing of Peter Bellamy (excepting the tiny changes I made—including a few words from Jeff Warner. Thanks Jeff!). Peter made his customary, indelible mark on this popular folk story. I hope he would have approved of this (he’d certainly have told me if he did not!).

Lauren McCormick sang Trees Grow High on her 2012 WildGoose CD On Blue Stockings. She noted:

This tune comes from May Bradley via the listening room at Cecil Sharp House. Her take on the story was rather happier than usual—nobody died and the young couple just had a nice chat for two verses. As lovely as this is, I thought I’d flesh it out with some verses from the George Butterworth Collection.

Steve Roud included The Trees They Do Grow High in 2012 in The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs. Lucy Ward and Bella Hardy sang it a year later on the accompanying Fellside CD The Liberty to Choose: A Selection of Songs From The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.

Emily Smith sang this ballad as My Darling Boy in 2014 on her CD Echoes.

Andy Turner learned The Trees They Do Grow High from the 1995 recording of Bob Copper mentioned above. He sang it as the 9 January 2015 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Sarah Hayes sang The Trees They Grow Tall in 2015 on her CD Woven.

Fiona Hunter learned Lady Mary Ann from the singing of Lizzie Higgins and sang it in 2015 on Malinky’s album Far Better Days (which took its title from the ballad’s verses: “Far better days I trust will come again / For my bonnie laddie’s young, but he’s growin yet”.)

Kirsty Potts sang College Boy on her 2015 album The Seeds of Life. She noted:

Learnt from the superb singing of Lizzie Higgins of Aberdeen. It is also known as Young Craigston, Lang A-Growing and Trees They Do Grow High. Versions are well spread in Britain and North America. This is one of the few classic ballads which does not appear in Child’s collection.

The Rails (Kami Thompson and James Walbourne) sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 2015 on their CD Australia.

David Stacey learned The Trees They Do Grow High from Joe Dolan and sang it on his 2015 Musical Traditions anthology Good Luck to the Journeyman.

Ange Hardy and Lukas Drinkwater sang The Trees They Do Grow High in 2016 on their CD Findings. Ange Hardy noted:

This was the first traditional song that we arranged together as a duo. It’s a song I had heard countless times but never really listened to until I heard the version by Lucy Ward and Bella Hardy on The Liberty to Choose. Those two really dragged me into the lyrics of the song for the first time, and from that introduction to the song I knew I wanted to work on my own arrangement. Lukas introduced the mid-song time signature change just before we started recording!

Chris Foster sang The Trees They Grow So High in 2017 on his CD Hadelin. He noted:

Cecil Sharp found this song to be widespread amongst the many singers that he met in Somerset. I pierced this version together from those sung to him by several people, in particular Harry Richards from Curry Rivel, Jack Barnard from Bridgwater and Harriet Young from West Chinnock.

Arrowsmith:Robb sang The Trees They Do Grow High on their 2018 CD All the Salt. They noted:

A lesser-known version of the arranged marriage ballad, from the great Norfolk singer Walter Pardon, via Peter Bellamy.

Landless learned The Trees They Grow Tall from Patricia Meir and Joe Heaney and sang it on their 2018 CD Bleaching Bones.

Kelly Oliver sang Trees They Do Grow High on her 2018 CD Botany Bay. She noted:

Collected by Lucy Broadwood in Hertfordshire, 1898.

A moving story of an arranged marriage which ends in tragedy.

Alasdair Roberts sang Long A-Growing on his, Amble Skuse and David McGuinness’ 2018 CD What News. They noted:

This ballad was learnt from a recording of the late Glaswegian folk singer Alex Campbell, with whom Alasdair’s father collaborated in the seventies. Despite the huge popularity of the song throughout the Anglophone world, with versions known from traditional singers in Scotland, England, Ireland, North America, Australia and beyond, it appears to have gone unnoticed by Child; it does not feature in his collection, although it can be found in Maidment’s A North Countrie Garland (1824) under the title The Young Laird of Craigstoun. Apparently, the song is based on historical fact—it is believed to concern the marriage of the young Laird of Craigstoun (Aberdeenshire) to Elizabeth Innes, daughter of Sir Robert Innes of that ilk.

Gigspanner Big Band sang Long A-Growing in 2020 on their CD Natural Invention. They noted:

Typically, there are numerous versions of this story of child marriage, although the unusual twist in the tale is that it is the husband who is the child, and his wife is yearning for a partner of greater maturity. There is a theory that this ballad is based on the marriage of the Laird of Craigston to Elizabeth Innes c. 1633. The Laird of Innes obtained guardianship of the boy and then married him to his daughter for the sake of acquiring estates. The boy died about a year later in 1634.

This version was learnt from Martin Carthy.

Emily Portman and Rob Harbron sang Long A-Growing on their 2022 album Time Was Away. They noted:

A ballad that is popularly thought to be based on the lives of a 17^th century Scottish aristocratic family, charting the perspectives of a woman (possibly Elizabeth Innes, daughter of Sir Robert Innes of that ilk) who was forced into an arranged marriage to a ‘college boy’ some years younger than her, only for him to die shortly after their marriage and the birth of their son. Our source is Mary Ann Haynes (1905-1977) who sang Long A-Growing to Mike Yates in her home in Brighton, Sussex, in 1974. Like the protagonist in this song, Mary Ann lost her husband, and raised her children singlehandedly by working as a flower seller along the Brighton seafront.

Jon Wilks talked with Emily Portman and Rob Harbron about The Trees Thes Do Grow High in October 2022 in Series 2, Episode 5 of his Old Songs Podcast.

Elspeth Cowie sang The Trees Thes Grow High on her 2023 album Who Knows Where the Time Goes?. She noted:

This is a version of The College Boy, which I learned many years ago but never recorded. The first person I  heard it from was the legendary Jacqui McShee of the jazz-nuanced folk band Pentangle on a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) TV show in the 1960s. Lizzie Higgins in Aberdeen had a fine way with it as The College Boy. Scotland’s national bard, Robert Burns, based his poem Lady Mary Ann on fragments of the tale.

Lyrics

A.L. Lloyd sings The Trees They Grow So High

The trees they grow so high and the leaves they grow so green,
The day is past and gone, my love, that you and I have seen.
It’s a cold winter’s night, my love, when I must bide alone,
For my bonny boy is young but a-growing.

As I was a-walking by yonder church wall,
I saw four-and-twenty young men a-playing at the ball.
I asked for my own true love but they wouldn’t let him come,
For they said the boy was young but a-growing.

“Oh father, dearest father, you’ve done to me much wrong,
You’ve tied me to a boy when you know he is too young.”
“Oh daughter, dearest daughter, if you’d wait a little while,
A lady you shall be, while he’s growing.”

“We’ll send your love to college, all for a year or two,
And then perhaps in time the boy will do for you.
I’ll buy you white ribbons to tie about his waist
To let the ladies know that he’s married.”

And so early in the morning at the dawning of the day,
They went out into the hay-field to have some sport and play,
And what they did there she never would declare,
But she never more complained of his growing.

And at the age of sixteen he was a married man,
And at the age of seventeen she brought to him a son,
And at the age of eighteen the grass grew over him,
And that soon put an end to his growing.

May Bradley sings Long A-Growing

Now the trees they do grow high, my love,
But the leaves they do grow green
The time has gone and past, my love,
That me and you have seen
It’s a cold and a frosty night, me love,
When me and you was sitting all alone
And we would let the ladies know
That we are growing.

Now I’ll buy my wife a gown
Sure the best of linen brown
And while she is a-wearing it
The tears they will roll down
For she asked me for blue ribbons
To tie around her bonny bonny waist
And then we’ll let those ladies know
That we are married.

Martin Carthy sings The Trees They Do Grow High

Oh the trees they do grow high and the leaves they do grow green,
And many’s the cold winter’s night my love and I have seen.
On a cold winter’s night my love you and I alone have been.
Oh my bonny boy is young but he’s growing,
Growing, growing,
My bonny boy is young but he’s growing

“Oh father, dear father, you’ve done to me much harm,
For to go and get me married to one who is so young.
For he is only sixteen years old and I am twenty-one,
Oh my bonny boy is young but he’s growing,
Growing, growing,
My bonny boy is young but he’s growing.”

“Oh daughter, dear daughter, I’ll tell you what I’ll do,
I’ll send your love to college for another year or two.
And all around his college cap I’ll tie a ribbon blue,
For to let the ladies know that he’s married,
Married, married,
To let the ladies know that he’s married.”

Now at the age of sixteen he was a married man,
And at the age of seventeen the father to a son,
And at the age of eighteen the grass grew over him.
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing,
Growing, growing,
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.

And now my love is dead and in his grave doth lie,
The green grass grows over him so very very high.
I’ll sit here and mourn his death until the day I die
And I’ll watch all o’er his child while he’s growing,
Growing, growing,
I’ll watch all o’er his child while he’s growing,

Fred Jordan sings The Bonny Boy

Ah, the trees are growing high, my love, and the grass is growing green,
And it’s many a cold winter’s night that I and you have seen,
And it’s many a cold winter’s night that I must lie alone.
Oh, the bonny boy is young but still growing.

“Oh, Father, my dear Father, I think you did me wrong
To go and get me married to one who is so young.
He is but sixteen years of age and I am twenty-one.
Oh, the bonny boy is young but still growing.”

“Oh, Daughter, my dear Daughter, 1did not do you wrong
To go and get you married to one who is so young.
He will be a good match for you when I am dead and gone.
Oh, the bonny boy is young but still growing.”

“Oh, Father, my dear Father, I’ll tell you what I’ll do.
I’ll send my boy to college for another year or two,
And all around his college cap I’ll bind a ribbon blue
Just to let the ladies know that he’s married.”

Oh, a year it went by, and I passed the college wall.
I saw the young collegians a-playing at the ball,
And there I saw my true love, the fairest of them all.
Oh, the bonny boy is young but still growing.

Oh, at sixteen years of age, oh, he was a married man,
And at seventeen years of age he was the father of a son,
But at the age of eighteen o’er his grave the grass grew green.
Cruel death had put an end to his growing.

Oh, they made my love a shroud of the ornamental brown,
And as they were a-making it, the tears they did run down.
It’s once I had a true love, but now he’s lying low,
But I’ll nurse his bonny boy while he’s growing.

Robin & Barry Dransfield sing The Trees They Do Grow High

Oh, the trees they do grow high and the leaves they do grow green,
And many’s the long and winter’s night my love and I have seen.
It’s a cold and winter’s night, my love, you and I must lie alone.
My bonny boy is young but he’s growing.

“Oh father, dear father, you’ve done to me great wrong,
To go and get me married to one who is too young.
Oh, he’s only sixteen years and I am twenty one,
My bonny boy is young but he’s growing.”

“Oh daughter, dear daughter, I’ll tell you what we do:
We’ll send your love to college for another year or two.
And all around his college cap we’ll tie a ribbon blue
To let the ladies know that he’s married.”

So early, so early, so early the next day,
This couple they went out to sport amongst the hay;
And what they did there I never will declare,
But she never more complained of his growing.

At the age of sixteen he was a married man,
And at the age of seventeen the father to a son,
And at the age of eighteen the grass grow over him,
Cruel death had put an end to his growing.

Tony Rose sings The Trees They Do Grow High

The trees they do grow high and the leaves they do grow green,
The day is past and gone, my love, that you and I have seen.
It’s a cold winter’s night, my love, when you and I must lie alone.
The bonny lad is young but he’s growing.

“Oh father, dearest father, you’ve done to me great wrong,
You married me a boy and I fear he is too young.”
“Oh daughter, dearest daughter, and if you stay at home and wait along with me,
A lady you shall be while he’s growing.”

“We’ll send him to the college, all for a year or two,
And then perhaps in time, my love, a man he may grow.
I will buy you a bunch of white ribbons to tie about his bonny, bonny waist
To let the ladies know that he’s married.”

And so early in the morning at the dawning of the day,
They went out into the hay-field to have some sport and play,
And what they did there she never would declare,
But she never more complained of his growing.

At the age of sixteen, oh, he was a married man,
And at the age of seventeen she brought to him a son.
At the age of eighteen, my love, oh his grave was growing green
And so she put to an end to his growing.

I made my love a shroud of the holland oh so fine
And every stitch she put in it, the tears come trinkling down.
Oh once I had a sweetheart but now I have got never a one,
So fare you well my own true love forever.

Now he is dead and buried and in the churchyard laid
The green grass is all over him so very, very thick
Oh once I had a sweetheart but now I have got never a one,
So fare you well my own true love forever.

George Dunn sings The Trees They Do Grow High

I enquired for my own true love,
But they would not let him come
Beacuse he was a nice young man a-growing.

At the age of seventeen he was a married man,
And at the age of eighteen the father of a son;
At the age of twenty, me boys,
Green grass it did grow over him,
Cold death did put an end to his growing.

Mary Ann Haynes sings Long A-Growing

Oh, the trees they did grow high
And the leaves they did grow green.
There’s years have gone and past, my love,
What you and I have seen.
Many a cold and winter’s night
You and I have laid alone.
But our bonny boy is young And he’s growing.

“Oh, father, dearest father,
Now to me much harm you have done.
You have married me to a young youth;
You knew he were too young.”
“Oh, daughter, dearest daughter,
If you’ll only wait for a while,
I will send him to a college while he’s growing.”

“I will send him to a college, say,
For one year or two,
And perhaps all in the time, my love,
He may then be for you.
For, a bunch of blue ribbons
We’ll tie around his bonny waist.
That will let the ladies know that he’s married.”

Oh, I looked over the college wall
And there I see them all.
Five and twenty gentlemen
Was playing bat and ball.
Oh, I looked round to him,
He was the smallest one of all.
So I thought he was a long time a-growing.

I’m going to make my love a stroud
Of the best of Holland’s brown,
And all the time I’m making it
The tears they will come down.
Saying, “Once I had a sweetheart
And now I ain’t a-got none.”

But his bonny boy is young and he’s growing.
At the age of twenty he was a married man.
At the age of twenty-one
The grass grew over his tombstone.
At the age of twenty-one now
The grass grows over his tombstone.
So that cruel death had put an end to his growing.

Steeleye Span sing Long A-Growing

As I was walking by yonder church wall,
I saw four-and-twenty young men a-playing at the ball.
I asked for my own true love but they wouldn’t let him come,
For they said the boy was young but a-growing.

“Father, dear father, you’ve done me much wrong,
You’ve tied me to a boy when you know he is too young.”
“But he will make a Lord for you to wait upon,
And a lady you will be while he’s growing.”

“We’ll send him to college for one year or two
And maybe in time the boy will do for you.
I’ll buy you white ribbons to tie around his waist
For to let the ladies know that he’s married.”

The trees they do grow high and the leaves they do grow green,
The day is passed and gone, my love, that you and I have seen.
It’s on a cold winter’s night that I must lie alone,
For the bonny boy is young but a-growing.

At the age of sixteen he was a married man,
And at the age of seventeen the father to a son,
And at the age of eighteen his grave it did grow green.
Cruel dead had put an end to his growing.

Lizzie Higgins sings Lady Mary Ann

Lady Mary Ann looked o’er the Castle wa’
When she saw three bonny laddies a-playing at the ba’
And the youngest he was the flooer amang them a’
He’s my bonny, bonny boy, aye and growing o.

“Father, dear father, I’ll tell you what to do:
We’ll send him tae the college for another year or two.
And round about his cap I will sew the ribbons blow
For to let the ladies know that he’s growing .”

Lady Mary Ann was a flower in the dew,
Sweet and bonnye, aye bright was her hue,
And the longer she blossomed the sweeter she grew,
For the lily in the border will be bonnier o.

Young Charlie Cochran was as proud as an ake,
Blithe and bonny and straight was his make.
And the sun it shone a’ for his sake,
And he will be the brag o’ the forest o.

The summer it is gaen and the leaves they are green,
And the days are awa that we hae seen;
Far better days I trust will come again,
For my bonny laddie’s young, aye, and a-growing o.

Peter Bellamy sings The Trees They Do Grow High

Now the trees they do grow high, love, the leaves they do grow green,
The time it is now gone, love, that you and I have seen.
It’s a cold winter’s night when you and I must bide alone
For the bonny boy is young, he’s a-growing, growing,
For the bonny boy is young, he’s a-growing.

“Oh father, dear father, you have done to me much wrong,
You’ve married me to a boy who I fear is too young.”
“Oh daughter, dear daughter, if you stay at home with me
Then a lady you will be while he’s growing, growing,
A lady you will be while he’s growing.”

“Oh, we will send your love to college, for another year or two,
Perhaps in that time to a man he will grow.
I will buy you white ribbons for to bind around his bonny waist
Just to let the ladies know that he’s married, married,
Just to let the ladies know that he’s married.”

As I was a-looking off my father’s castle wall
There I spied all them bonny boys they was playing at the ball.
And my true love he ran among them, he was flower of all,
Though my bonny boy is young, he’s a-growing, growing,
Though my bonny boy is young, he’s a-growing.

At the age of sixteen he was a married man,
At the age of seventeen he was the father of a son,
At the age of eighteen, love, well his grave it was a-growing green,
So she soon saw the end of his growing, growing,
So she soon saw the end of his growing.

I made my love a shroud of the Holland oh so fine,
Every stitch I put in it, my tears came trickling down.
And I will mourn his fate until the day that I do die,
But I will watch o’er his child while it’s growing, growing,
Yes I will watch o’er his child while it’s growing.

Eliza Carthy sings Growing

The trees they do grow high, the leaves they do grow green,
The time is long past, love, you and I have seen.
It’s a cold winter’s night that you and I must bide alone,
Tho’ my bonny lad is young, he’s a-growin’.

“Oh father, dear father, you’ve done me much wrong,
You’ve married me to a boy who I fear is too young.”
“Oh daughter, dear daughter, if you stay at home with me,
A lady you shall be while he’s growin’.”

“And we’ll send him off to college for one year or two
Perhaps then, my love, to a man he will grow.
Now I’ll buy you white ribbons to tie round his bonny waist
So the ladies will know that he’s married.”

At the age of sixteen he was a married man,
And at seventeen the father of a son,
At the age of eighteen, love, his grave it was a-growin’ green,
So she saw the end of his growin’

I made my love a shroud of Holland oh so fine,
Every stitch I put in it, the tears came trickling down.
Now I’ll abhor his fate until the day I shall die,
And I’ll watch o’er his child while it’s growin’,
I’ll watch o’er his child while it’s growin’.

Now my love is dead and in his grave he lies
And the grass I sowed o’er him it groweth so high.
I had a sweetheart but now I’ve got never a one,
Fare ye well my own true love for growin’, growin’,
Fare ye well my own true love for growin’.

Billy Ross sings Lady Mary Ann

O Lady Mary Ann she looks o’er the castle wa’,
There she saw three bonnie boys a’ playin at the ba’.
The youngest an he’s the flower amang them a’,
My bonnie laddie’s young but he’s growin yet.

“Faither, o Faither, and ye think it fit,
We’ll send him tae college for one year yet.
We’ll tie a green ribbon round about his hat
And that will let them ken he’s tae marry yet.”

Lady Mary Ann was a flower in the dew,
Sweet was its smell, aye, and bonnie was its hue.
And the langer it blossom’d the sweeter it grew
For the lily in the bud will be bonnier yet.

Young Charlie Cochran was the sprout of an aik,
Bonnie and bloomin and straught was its make.
The sun took delight to shine for its sake
And it will be the brag o’ the forest yet.

The Summer is gane when the leaves they were green,
The days are awa that we hae seen.
But far better days I trust will come again,
My bonnie laddie’s young but he’s growin yet.

Ellen Mitchell sings Lady Mary Ann

Lady Mary Ann
Lookit ower the castle wa’
And there she saw three bonny laddies
Playing at the ba’
And the youngest o’ them
Was the fairest o’ aa,
He’s ma bonny boy, he’s young,
And he’s growin O.

“Father, dear Father,
I’ll tell you what we’ll do,
I’ll send ma love tae college
For another year or two.
Aye, and all around his cap
I’ll sew the ribbons blue
Just to let the ladies know
That he’s growing O.”

Young Charlie Cochrane
Was the sproot o’ an ake,
Blithe and bonny, aye,
And straight as a rake.
And the sun it shone
And a’ for his sake,
And he will be the brag
O’ the forest O.

Lady Mary Ann
Was the flo’er amang the dew,
Blithe and bonny, aye,
And sweet was her hue.
And the langer she blossomed
The sweeter she grew,
For the lily in the bud
Will be bonnier O.

The summer it is gone
And the leaves that were green,
And happy were the days
That we hae seen.
Ah, but far happier days
I trust will come again
For ma bonny laddie’s young
And he’s growin O.

Jon Boden & Fay Hield sing The Trees They Do Grow High

Oh, the trees they do grow high and the leaves they do grow green,
And it’s many’s the long and winter’s night my love and I have seen.
It’s a cold and winter’s night, my love, you and I must lie alone.
Oh, my bonny boy is young but he’s growing.

“Oh father, dear father, you’ve done to me great wrong,
To go and get me married to a boy who is too young.
For, he is only sixteen years and I am twenty one,
Oh, my bonny boy is young but he’s growing.”

“Oh daughter, dear daughter, I’ll tell you what we’ll do:
We will send him off to college for another year or two.
And all around his college cap we will tie the ribbons blue
For to let the ladies know that he’s married.”

So early, so early, so early the next day,
This couple they went out for to sport among the hay;
And what they did there I never will declare,
But she never more complained of his growing.

At the age of sixteen he was a married man,
And at the age of seventeen the father to a son,
But at the age of eighteen years the grass grow over him,
Cruel death had put an end to his growing.

Acknowledgements

Garry Gillard transcribed Martin Carthy’s version and Kira White transcribed the version sung by Eliza Carthy.

Links

• The trees they do grow high: a ballad of medieval arranged marriage? by Ian Pittaway