Broomfield Hill

Broomfield Hill

A wager, a wager, five hundred pound and ten
That you'll not go to the Broomfield Hill and a maid return again
And oh she cried, and oh she sighed, and oh she made her moan
Saying "shall I go to the Broomfield Hill or shall I stay at home?
"For if I go to the Broomfield Hill, my maidenhead is gone
"But if I chance to stay at home, why then I am foresworn."

There's thirteen months all in one year, as I've heard people say
But the finest month year in all the year
is the merry, merry month of May

And up there spoke an old witch-woman, as she sits all alone
Saying, "You shall go to the Broomfield hill
and a maid you shall return
"For when you get to the Broomfield Hill,
you will find your lover asleep
"With his silken gown all under his head and a broom-cow
at his feet
"You take the blossom from off of the broom,
the blossom that smells so sweet
"And you lay it down all under his head
and more at the soles of his feet"

There's thirteen months all in one year, as I've heard people say
But the finest month year in all the year
is the merry, merry month of May

Instrumental

And when she got to the Broomfield Hill,
she found her lover asleep
With his hawk and his hound and his silk satin gown
and his ribbons all down to his feet
She's taken the blossom from off of the broom,
the blossom that smells so sweet
And the more she lay it round about,
the sounder he did sleep
She's taken the ribbon from off her finger
and laid it at his right hand
For to let him know when he awoke
that she'd been there at his command

There's thirteen months all in one year,
as I've heard people say
But the finest month year in all the year
is the merry, merry month of May

"Oh where were you my good grey steed,
that I have loved so dear?
"Why did you not stamp and waken me
when there was a maiden here?"
"Oh I stamped with my feet, master, and all my bells I rang
"But there was nothing could waken you til
she had been and gone"
"Oh haste, haste, my good grey steed,
for to come where she may be
"Or all the birds in the Broomfield Hill
will eat their fill of thee."
"Oh you need not break your good grey steed
by racing to her home
"There's no bird flies faster through the wood
than she flew through the broom"

Instrumental

There's thirteen months all in one year, as I've heard people say
But the finest month year in all the year
is the merry, merry month of May