> A.L. Lloyd > Songs > The Bird in the Bush
> Frankie Armstrong > Songs > The Bird in the Bush
> Steeleye Span > Songs > Drink Down the Moon—The Cuckoo
> The Watersons > Songs > Three Pretty Maidens / Three Maids A-Milking

Three Maids A-Milking / Three Pretty Maidens / The Bird in the Bush / Drink Down the Moon

[ Roud 290 ; Master title: Three Maids A-Milking ; Ballad Index K191 ; GlosTrad Roud 290 ; Wiltshire 228 ; DT SMALBIR2 ; Mudcat 25301 ; trad.]

The Bird in the Bush is a song from the repertoire of ‘Queen’ Caroline Hughes. A recording of her made by Peter Kennedy in her caravan near Blandford, Dorset, on 19 April 1968 was included in 2012 on the Topic anthology I’m a Romany Rai (The Voice of the People Series Volume 22).

Bob Copper recorded Fred Hewett singing Three Maidens to Milking Did Go on 26 July 1955 in the singer’s home in Mapedurwell, Hampshire. This recording was included in 1977 on the Topic anthology of country singers from Hampshire and Sussex, Songs and Southern Breezes, and in 1998 on Who’s That at My Bed Window? (The Voice of the People Series Volume 10).

A.L. Lloyd sang The Bird in the Bush in 1956 on his Tradition album The Foggy Dew and Other Traditional English Love Songs. He noted:

Men may keep alive love songs that women would allow to die. Usually the women’s song is of the ecstasy or grief of love. The man’s song, in England anyway, rarely sings of the heights and depths of love. Rather it looks the facts in the eye, and reports fairly objectively of the situation. Sometimes a spade is called a spade; sometimes it’s called a bird in the bush. Also known as Three Maidens A-Milking Did Go, the song has often been printed, but always bowdlerised to make a piece of bumpkin quaintness out of what is one of the most sensuous of all English songs. Here, for a change, is how the song is sung by the folk who made it.

Ewan MacColl sang The Bird in the Bush in 1958 on his and Isla Cameron’s Riverside album English and Scottish Love Songs. A.L. Lloyd noted:

Some English love songs have plenty of sunlight and no secrets. Others, perhaps of great antiquity, keep their face in the shadow and tell their tale cryptically, as in this song where a man meets a brilliant group of girls and goes with them into the wood where the leaves are thickest and no outsider sees what happens. This version comes from the Chew family of Chew Stoke, Somerset.

Frankie Armstrong sang The Bird in the Bush as the title track of the 1966 Topic anthology of traditional erotic songs, The Bird in the Bush by A.L. Lloyd, Anne Briggs and Frankie Armstrong. A.L. Lloyd noted:

In poetry, as in dream, the bird may be a mild symbol of the penis as the rose, rosebush or bush is of the vulva. There’s Lesbia’s sparrow, Boccaccio’s nightingale and, for the matter of that, the dove of the Annunciation. In the present song, common enough yet rarely reported in full, a young man with shadowed face meets a vivid trio of girls and goes with them into the woods where the leaves are thickest. The subsequent sociable action is simple and quiet, but the symbolic language and mysterious tune create a scene that is sensual in the extreme.

Anne Briggs recorded The Bird in the Bush herself in 1973; but the ensuing album was shelved only to be released in 1996 as Sing a Song for You. She noted:

The delight in loving, the rural imagery, the heroic dismissal of public opinion and the bare simple tune, plus the fact that it was taught to me by Bert Lloyd makes this one of my favourite songs.

Anne Briggs also recorded Three Maidens A-Milking Did Go in 1971, probably in the sessions for her Topic album Anne Briggs. This recording was finally released on Record Store Day 2024 on the 7" bonus single The Lost Tape accompanying that album’s reissue. She noted:

Three lasses meet up with a boy and they all leg it to the woods together. They clearly had a great time. The song is explicit and explains all; one of the girls seems to have had a whale of a time but it’s not clear what the other two were up to.

Again, Bert Lloyd introduced me to this song.

Shirley Collins learnt The Bird in the Bush from A.L. Lloyd too and recorded it in 1967 for her album The Sweet Primeroses.

Steeleye Span recorded this ballad in 1974 as Drink Down the Moon for their sixth album, Now We Are Six; their first one with drummer Nigel Pegrum. To this track they added a second song, The Cuckoo, for good measure. This recording was also included in their compilation album Original Masters. Steeleye Span recorded this song a second time in 2002 for the CD Present to accompany the December 2002 Steeleye Span reunion tour. Another Steeleye Span performance—live at Southampton Civic Hall on 15 May 2004—can be found on their DVD The 35^th Anniversary World Tour 2004 and on the limited-edition CD The Official Bootleg.

Lal and Norma Waterson sang this song as Three Pretty Maidens on the Watersons’ 1981 album Green Fields and Norma Waterson sang it as Three Maids A-Milking on her 2000 solo album Bright Shiny Morning. A.L. Lloyd wrote in the former album’s sleeve notes:

Rev. Baring-Gould got this version from three farm-workers of Lew Down, Devonshire. It’s unusual in that the amorous get together of young man and young woman takes place in the presence of witnesses (in fact these all seem to be waiting their turn). There are many versions of this amiable song, some more explicit than others. When the parson first heard it, he thought it went a bit too far, and he re-wrote the song entirely. Later he got a bit more used to its saucy idea, and republished the song with its original words, “only slightly modifying them”. Frank Kidson had a Yorkshire version from near Leeds, but he jibbed at printing the words.

and Norma Waterson noted on her album:

From Queen Caroline Hughes. I first heard this song in the version sung by Anne Briggs in the early sixties and tried for years to find a version I liked. I think my favourite line is “Tonight I will get paid” (ker-ching!!)

Charlie Bridger sang Three Maid a-Milking Did Go to Mike Yates on 23 April 1984. This recording was included on the Veteran cassette of English traditional singers, The Horkey Load Vol. 1, and in 2001 on the Veteran anthology of traditional folk music from rural England, Down in the Fields. Mike Yates noted:

Printed frequently on Victorian broadsides, this is a song that caused the early collectors much soul-searching. Writing in 1891, Frank Kidson had this to say, “If not very old, it is good, and it could be wished that the succeeding verses to the first (the only one which I have printed), were equally meritorious and more suitable for this work.” (Traditional Tunes).

Luckily, singers were not so prudish, and the song has turned up repeatedly all over the place, Cecil Sharp, for example, noting eight versions from Somerset, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. Alfred Williams found it “existing in several forms” in the Thames Valley prior to the Great War (the version that he prints in his book Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames, 1923, seems to have been edited) and the Reverend Baring-Gould was sufficiently shocked by it that he felt compelled to rewrite the text as Here’s a Health to the Blackbird (in Songs of the West, 2^nd ed. 1891-95).

Sandra and Nancy Kerr sang The Milkmaids in 1996 on their Fellside album Neat and Complete. They noted:

Also known as The Bird in The Bush, the tune was collected by Vaughan Williams from someone he described simply as ‘gypsy’, in a village a few miles from Rotherham. Our text is made up of favourite verses from other versions.

Ougenweide sang Drink Down the Moon on their 1996 album Sol.

Tim Radford sang The Bird in the Bush on his 2005 CD Home From Home. He noted:

A song, again collected by the Hammond Bros. in both Dorset and Somerset, that tastefully uses sexual imagery common in folk song. My version is influenced by one collected by Bob Copper in Hampshire in the 1950s and is a ‘one maid’ version of the more common ‘three maids’ song, the one that never really tells you what happened to the other two!

Jon Boden learned Bird in the Bush from Steeleye Span and sang it as the 19 February 2011 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day.

Andy Turner who, besides Mike Yates, collected Three Maidens a-Milking Did Go from Charlie Bridger from Stone-in-Oxney in Kent, sang it as the 9 March 2013 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Said the Maiden sang The Bird in the Bush on their 2017 CD Here’s a Health. They noted:

This is a rude song about three maidens… and birds… and bushes. We learnt it from the singing of Private Daniel Hagman.

Piers Cawley got The Bird in the Bush from Anne Briggs and Frankie Armstrong, and sang it in 2020 on his download album Isolation Sessions #1. He noted:

I think I first heard this sung by Frankie Armstrong on the Topic LP The Bird in the Bush, but if I did, I heard Anne Briggs’s version very shortly after. Another one I didn’t consciously set out to learn—I remembered it as a song that fit one of Fay Hield’s Trad Song Tuesday themes and realised I mostly knew it. A quick read through of the various versions of the lyrics [here] and there it was.

It has such a beautiful lyric. It opens as your typical smutty folk innuendo, but then the last two verses are just gorgeous. How can you resist singing a song that ends with

We’ll drink down the sun and we’ll drink up the moon
Let the neighbours say little or much

Eliza Carthy sang Bird in the Bush on her 2023 album Conversations We’ve Had Before. She noted:

Sexy time! It’s rare that I learn songs from recordings, but this I did, from the Topic album of the same name (1966), sung by Frankie Armstrong.

Lyrics

‘Queen’ Caroline Hughes sings The Bird in the Bush

Oh, I met with some young man I know.
I met with some young man I know.
Well, I asked that young man if he have got any skills,
Yes, to catch me a small bird or two.

“Oh, yes, I ’ve some very nice skills.
Oh, yes, I ’ve some very nice skills.
I f you’ll come along with me down to yonder’s lily bush,
I will catch you a small bird or two.”

Straightaway that young man then we went
Straightaway to the lily green bush.
Well, he rapped up the bush and the bird he did fly out.
He flied little above my white knee.

Well, tonight we’ll take our pay and tomorrow we will spend it.
We’ll go home by the light of the moon.

Fred Hewett sings Three Maidens to Milking Did Go

Three maidens to milking did go,
Three maidens to milking did go.
And the wind it did blow high and the wind it did blow low,
And it tossed milking pails to and fro.

I met with a man I knew well,
And I kindly asked of him if he had got any skills
For to catch me a small bird or two.

“Oh, yes, I got some excellent good skills.
Now, come along with me down to yonder shady tree.
I’ll catch thee a small bird or two.”

Here’s luck to the blackbird and thrush,
There’s luck to the blackbird and thrush.
It’s a bird of one feather and we’ll all flock together,
Let the people say little or much.

Here’s luck to the jolly dragoon.
Here’s luck to the jolly dragoon.
We ll ramble all the day and at night we ll spend or play,
And go home by the light of the moon.

Frankie Armstrong sings The Bird in the Bush

𝄆 Three maidens a-milking did go 𝄇
And the wind it did blow high and the wind it did blow low
And it waved their petticoats to and fro

𝄆 They met with some young man they know 𝄇
And they asked of him if he had any skill
For to catch them a small bird or two

𝄆 Oh yes I’ve a very good skill 𝄇
So it’s come along with me to the yonder flowering tree
And I’ll catch you a small bird or two

𝄆 So away to the greenwoods went they 𝄇
And he tapped at the bush and the bird it did fly in
Just a little above her lily-white knee

Then her sparkling eyes they did turn round
Just as if she had been in a swoon
And she cried “Oh, I’ve a bird and a very pretty bird
And he’s pecking away at his own ground”

𝄆 Here’s a health to the bird in the bush 𝄇
And we’ll drink down the moon, and we’ll drink up the sun
Let the neighbours say little or much

Anne Briggs sings The Bird in the Bush

𝄆 Three maidens a-milking did go 𝄇
And the wind it blow high and the wind it did blow low
It tossed their petticoats to and fro

𝄆 They met with a young man they know 𝄇
And they’ve asked it of him if he had any skill
To catch them a small bird or two

𝄆 Oh yes I’ve a very good skill 𝄇
And it’s come away with me to the yonder flowering tree
And I’ll catch you a small bird or two

So 𝄆 it’s off to the greenwoods went they 𝄇
And he’s tapped at the bush and the bird it did fly in
Just a little above her white knee

And her sparkling eyes they did turn round
Just as if she was in a swound
And she cried “Oh, I’ve a bird and a very pretty bird
He’s a-pecking away at his own ground”

𝄆 Here’s a health to the bird in the bush 𝄇
And we’ll drink up the sun, and we’ll drink down the moon
Let the neighbours say little or much

Shirley Collins sings The Bird in the Bush

𝄆 Three maidens a-milking did go 𝄇
And the wind it blew high and the wind it did blow low
And it waved their pails to and fro

Now 𝄆 they met with some young man they knew 𝄇
And they asked of him if he had any skill
In catching a small bird or two

Yes 𝄆 indeed, I’ve a very fine skill 𝄇
And if you’ll come along with me to the yonder greenwood
I might catch you a small bird or two

So 𝄆 along to the greenwoods they went 𝄇
And the bird it flew in and the bird it flew out
Just a above her lily-white knee

So 𝄆 here’s a health to the bird in the bush 𝄇
for the bird’s of one feather, they should always lie together
Let the people say little or much

Steeleye Span’s version of Drink Down the Moon / The Cuckoo

𝄆 Three maidens a-milking did go 𝄇
And the wind it did blow high and the wind it did blow low;
It tossed their petticoats to and fro.

𝄆 They met with some young man they know, 𝄇
And they boldly asked him if he had any skill
To catch them a small bird or two.

𝄆 Oh yes I’ve a very good skill, 𝄇
And it’s come along with me to yonder flowering tree
And I’ll catch a small bird or two.

So off to the greenwood went they
And it’s off to the greenwood went they,
And he tapped at the bush and the bird it did fly in
A little above her lily-white knee.

Her sparkling eyes they did turn around
Just as if she had been all in a swoon,
And she cried, “I’ve a bird and a very pretty bird
And he’s pecking away at his own ground.”

𝄆 Here’s health to the bird in the bush, 𝄇
And we’ll drink up the sun, we’ll drink down the moon,
Let the people say little or much.

𝄆 There is a thorn bush in our kailyard; 𝄇
At the back o’thon bush there lays a lad and lass
And they’re busy, busy fairing at the cuckoo’s nest.

𝄆 Hi the cuckoo, ho the cuckoo, hi the cuckoo’s nest, 𝄇
I’d give anybody a shilling and a bottle of the best
That’ll rumple up the feathers in the cuckoo’s nest.

It is thorn and it is prickle, it is compassed all around;
It is thorn and it is prickle, and it isn’t easy found.
She said, “young man you blunder”, and I said it isn’t true
And I left her with the makings of a young cuckoo.

𝄆 Hi the cuckoo, ho the cuckoo, hi the cuckoo’s nest, 𝄇
I’d give anybody a shilling and a bottle of the best
That’ll rumple up the feathers in the cuckoo’s nest.

Lal and Norma Waterson sing Three Pretty Maidens

Three pretty maidens a-milking did go,
Three pretty maidens a-milking did go.
When the wind it did blow high and the wind it did blow low
And it tossed their milking pails to and fro

Then she met with a man that she did not know
Oh, she met with a man that she did not know
And she asked, have you the skill, and she asked, have you the will
To catch me a small bird or two?

Here’s a health to the blackbird in the bush
Likewise to the merry ring-a-doo*
If you’ll come along with me then in yonder greenwood tree
I will catch you a small bird or two

So I went till we stayed at a bush
We went till we stayed at two
And the pretty birds flew in, o, you know what I mean
And I caught them by one and by two

So whilst boys that we have our fun
We will all drink down the sun
We will tarry till we drink down the moon
As birds of one feather we will all flock together
Let people say little or none

Norma Waterson sings Three Maids A-Milking

Now as maidens a-milking we did go,
As maidens a-milking we did go.
And the wind it did blow high and the wind it did blow under
And it tossed our petticoats to and fro.

Well we met with a young man that we know,
We met with a young man that we know.
And I asked it of him, had he got any learning
For to catch me a little bird or so.

Oh yes I’ve a very good skill,
Oh yes I’ve a very good skill.
If you’ll come along with me down to yonder flowering bushes
I will catch you a little bird or three.

Well we went till we came down to a bush,
We went till we came down unto three.
And the little bird flew in and you know just what I’m meaning
And I caught it a little by my right knee.

Here’s a health to the birds all in the bush,
A health to the bonny rigadoon,
For tonight I will get paid and tomorrow I will spend it
And go home by the light of the moon.

For tonight I will get paid and tomorrow I will spend it
And go home by the light of the moon.

Sandra and Nancy Kerr sing The Milkmaids

Three maids a-milking they did go,
Three maids a-milking they did go.
And the wind it did blow high and the wind it did blow low
And it tossed their petticoats to and fro.

They met with some young man they know,
They met with some young man they know.
And they asked it of him whether he had any skill
For to catch them a small bird or two.

“Oh yes I’ve a very good skill,
Oh yes I’ve a very good skill,
And if you will go with me to yon merry greenwood tree
I’ll catch you a small bird or two.”

He laid his love under a bush,
He laid his love under a tree.
He tapped at the bush and the bird it did fly in,
You may very well know what I mean.

Her sparkling eyes they did turn round
Just as though she had been in a swoon,
And she cried, “Oh I’ve a bird and a very pretty bird
And he’s pecking away at his own ground.”

Here’s a health to the bird in the bush,
Here’s a health to the bird in the bush.
And we’ll drink down the moon and we’ll drink up the sun,
Let the neighbours say little or much.

Tim Radford sings The Bird in the Bush

A fair maid a milking did go
A fair maid a milking did go
And the wind it did blow high, and the wind it did blow low,
It blew her pails to and fro.

She met with a man that she knew
She met with a man that she knew
And she boldly asked of him, have you got any skill
To catch me a small bird or two.

Oh Yes, I have some skill
And a very good skill it is too,
If you will come with me to yonder shady tree,
I’ll catch you a small bird or two.

So they went down together you shall see,
All under the green shady tree.
And he fired at the bush, and the bird it did fly in,
Just above her lily-white knee.

Here’s a health to the man and the maid
Here’s a health to the bird in the bush.
We’re all birds of one feather and we’ll all flock together
May the people say little or much.

Here’s a health to the man and the maid,
Here’s a health to the jolly dragoon,
We have tarried here all day and drank down the sun,
Let’s tarry here and drink down the moon.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Greer Gilman for the transcription of the Watersons’ versions and the note about the rigadoon. And thanks to Terry Rigby for correcting some embarrassing typos.