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Title
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There was an old farmer in Sussex did dwell
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Singer
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Sawyer, David [Phoebus]
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Notes
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Alfred Williams - 'This is called the Sussex whistling song. I cannot vouch for the truth of the claim, but whether it originated in Sussex, or elsewhere, it was very popular in the Thames Valley eighty years ago. I personally am suspicious about the validity of the local claims, and should be inclined - unless I had positive confirmation of it - to think that the piece was written out of Sussex. When the composer of such a piece is in the act of writing his attentions normally are given not to his own county, but to one a little remote. I am sure that if I were writing in a general sense I should rather mention a place some little distance from me than one immediately contiguous. Copy obtained of David Sawyer.'
Transcribed and edited by Chris Wildridge, 2007.
