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Title
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Thames Head Wassailers' song
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Singer
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Smart, Edwin
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Notes
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Note 1
Williams, Alfred: Ms / WGS / FSUT: I have named the Thames Head Wassailers song because I have not heard it except around the Thames source. It has been called the Gloucestershire Wassailing song though it seems to have been quite as popular in north Wiltshire as in Gloucestershire, especially at Brinkworth, Somerford, Oaksey, Ashton Keynes and Cricklade. The bowl is variously said to have been made of a sycamore, maplin and maypole-ing tree, and there are other minor differences in the current versions. Copy obtained of Wassail Harvey, Cricklade and E Smart, Oaksey, Wiltshire.
* In place of 'Yes, if you will, and welcome too!' I have heard, 'Merry boys all, and welcome too'.
Note 2
The manuscript Wt 367 includes two songs, one identified as the Thames Head Wassailers Song, is in Williams own hand. The second is a typescript which uses the same number but is identified as the Cricklade Wassail Song. The Thames Head version lacks Verse 9 in the published edition on pages 116, 117 of FSUT while the Cricklade version lacks Verse 5.
While Williams does not identify the contributions of the two singers, Harvey and Smart, it may not be unreasonable to infer that the Cricklade version came from Harvey and the Thames Head version from Smart.
There is a further complication in that on the reverse of Mi 588 Hard Times come again no more there is a further version of the song which is not listed in the Bathe Clissold Index. This has textual differences with verses in the published version and Wt 367.
Note 3
The song also appears in Round about the Upper Thames as indicated above. Only the first eight verses are printed and there are minor textual changes as follows:
Verse 1
Wassail, wassail, all over the town,
Our toast is white and our ale is brown,
Our bowl it is made of a maple tree,
And so is good beer of the best barley.
Verse 2
Here's to the ox and to his long horn,
May God send our maester a good crop o' corn!
A good crop o' corn and another o' hay,
To pass the cold wintry winds away.
Note 4
This is the text of a communication from Gwylim Davies, reproduced with permission:
Richard Chidlaw [in the 1970s] was informed by Granny Frankcom that the Oaksey wassailers went round all the villages dressed up in their old white smocks, slouch hats, corduroy trousers and tied baggy at the knee. The man in front wore the mask of a cow, had long painted thing [a horn?] hung round his neck and he carried the wassailing bowl. The best bowl would have a silver or brass rim, but the ordinary one was maple. These were decorated with evergreens. When they sang, the man with the mask would prance about.
Transcribed and edited by Chris Wildridge, 2013.
