> Louis Killen > Songs > Bright Shining Morning

The Sweet Rosy Morning / Bright Rosy Morning / Bright Shining Morning

[ Roud 21097 ; Master title: The Sweet Rosy Morning ; Ballad Index WT058 ; GlosTrad Roud 21097 ; Wiltshire 669 , 953 ; trad.]

Swan Arcade sang Bright Shining Morning in 1973 as the first track of their first, eponymous LP Swan Arcade. They noted:

This song is from Popular Songs of Sussex, collected by Revd. J. Broadwood and Lucy Broadwood, arranged by Birch-Reynardson. We have added one verse and unwittingly changed the words slightly.

Louis and Sally Killen sang Bright Shining Morning in 1975 as title track of their LP Bright Shining Morning. Louis Killen noted:

This fox-hunting song comes from Popular Songs of Sussex, collected by the Rev. John Broadwood and Lucy Broadwood. We “collected” it from a recording of the English folk group Swan Arcade, and with a verse they added. To them, many thanks!

The Holme Valley Tradition sang Bright Rosy Morning in 1985 as the title track of their Hill & Dale album Bright Rosy Morning.

Finest Kind sang Bright Shining Morning on their 2003 album Silks & Spices. They noted:

Learned from our friend Louis Killen, this song can be found in Lucy Broadwood’s Sussex Songs (1889) and is one of countless songs surrounding a sport that Oscar Wilde called “the unspeakable in full pursuit of the inedible.” Nevertheless it is a wonderfully ornate and singable evocation of a more green and pleasant land, long before football hooliganism and journalism took over as the national blood sports. The magnificent melody has much in common with that of the Copper family’s Innocent Hare.

Danny Spooner sang The Bright Shining Morning in 2011 on his CD The Fox, The Hare and the Poacher’s Fate.

This 2016 video shows The Bromleys singing The Bright Shining Morning:

Lyrics

Swan Arcade sing Bright Shining Morning

𝄆 The bright shining morning smiles over the hills
With blushes adorning the meadows and rills. 𝄇

Chorus (repeated after each verse):
𝄆 And the merry, merry, merry horn cries come, come away, 𝄇
𝄆 Awake from your slumbers and hail the new day. 𝄇

𝄆 The fox runs before us, he seems for to fly
And he pants to the chorus of the hounds in full cry. 𝄇

𝄆 When our day’s work is ended, we home do retire
And we pull off our boots by the light of the fire. 𝄇

𝄆 Come, fill up your glasses, let the toast go around,
We’ll drink to all hunters where e’er they’re found. 𝄇