Henry's Songbook

O come all ye tramps and hawker lads
And gaitherers o' bla'
That tramps the country round and round
Come listen ane and a'
I'll tell tae ye a rovin' tale
O' sights that I hae seen
It's far intae the snowy north
And sooth by Gretna Green

Aftimes I've laughed untae mysel'
When trudgin' on the road
My tore rags round my blistered feet
My face as brown as a toad's
Wi' lums o' cake an' tattie scones
Wi' whangs o' braxy ham
No giein a thought frae whaur I come
An' less tae whaur I'm gang

I've done my share o' humpin' wi'
The dockers o' the Clyde
I've helped in Buckie trawlers haul
The herrin' o'er the side
I helped to build the michty bridge
That spans the busy Forth
And wi' mony an Angus fairmer's trick
I plooed the bony earth

I'm happy in the summertime
Beneath the bright blue sky
No thinkin' in the mornin'
Where at night I'll hae to lie
In barn or byre or anywhere
Dossin' out among the hay
And if the weather treats me right
I'm happy every day

Repeat 1

As sung by Luke Kelly

blaw

• (1. gossip, stories)
• (2. tinker's cant for oatmeal)
• (3. packman's goods (Penguin)

Come all ye tramps and hawker lads, ye gaitherers o' blaw
That tramps the country roon' and roon', listen ane and a'
I'll tell tae you a rovin' tale o' sichts that I hae seen
Far up intae the snowy north and south by Gretna Green

And I think I'll go to Paddy's land, I'm makin' up my mind
For Scotland's greatly altered noo, and I cannae raise the wind
But I will trust in providence gin providence prove true
Then I will sing of Erin's isle when I come back to you

Repeat 1

As sung by Iain MacKintosh & Hamish Imlach

Urquhart's fairy glen - (Scottish art song about) Glen Urquhart, with Urquhart Castle, on Loch Ness in the north of Scotland
dods - (pieces)
wind - (money)

[1970:] [Verses used neither by Luke Kelly nor by MacKintosh & Imlach:]

• Loch Catrine and Loch Lomond hae a' been seen by me
  The Dee, the Don, the Deveron that flows intae the sea
  Dunrobin Castle by the way I nearly had forgot
  And aye the Rickle o' Carlin marks the Hoose o' John O'Groats

• I'm often roon by Galloway and doon aboot Stranraer
  My business leads me anygates, for I travel near and far
  I've got the rovin notion, there's naething fae't I loss
  And a' my day is my daily fare, an' what'll pay my doss

  doss - (night's lodging)

('As sung by Jimmie MacBeth', Penguin Book of Scottish Verse, 497f)

[1973:] Geordie [Stewart of Huntly] not only assured Jimmy [McBeath] that fame, money and a great lyric future lay before him on the road; he also taught him two or three dozen of the songs which he was afterwards to make famous, including the best version collected to date of Come A' Ye Tramps and Hawkers. (Henderson, Alias MacAlias 162)

[1974:] Towards the end of the last century an Angus hawker by-named 'Brechin Jimmy' and 'Besom Jimmy' - his real name was Jimmy Henderson - composed a song called Come A' Ye Tramps and Hawkers. It rapidly became popular among the fraternity, and in recent years it has been carried (in Jimmy MacBeath's version) to every corner of the English- and Scots-speaking world. (Henderson, Alias MacAlias 170)

[1983:] [This] epitomises the joys, hazards and vicissitudes of Jimmy [MacBeath]'s own chosen lifestyle. (Henderson, Alias MacAlias 149)

[1984:] This song breathes the very essence of the nomadic life - but the speaker is an itinerant worker, not a layabout: a loner describing the different jobs he's done and the places he's visited. Unlike Woody Guthrie's migrant workers, forced to travel in search of work, our man has chosen his way of life and enjoys it [...]. And he's "got the roving notion" that he's missing nothing whatsoever.
[Charlie Murray] got this song from Jimmy MacBeath at Banff feeing market, around 1934-5 when Jimmy was in his hey-day as an itinerant singer. The fourth verse [roughly v. 3 in Hamish's version] is less well-known, and Charlie says he "concocted" the last line himself. [...] Of Tramps and Hawkers he says, "In Jimmy MacBeath's case I think he let the establishment know that despite hardships and harrassment by police to street singers, he made a living by what he liked doing." (Munro, Revival 183f)

[1986:] Often attributed to Besom Jimmy, an Angus hawker of the last century, but widespread in the tradition by the time Gavin Greig was collecting, seventy years ago. (The Scottish Folksinger 155f)

[1988:] Braxy is a bacterial infection of sheep, and in those days usually fatal. But it did not affect the flesh, and since only the best and fattest sheep were struck down, to find a newly dead braxy sheep was a find indeed, and a great help to the diet of the lucky family. [It] was said by the pundits that, on finding a dead sheep, the finder should grasp it firmly by the hind legs and swing it round his head. If the legs withstood six full circles, then the sheep was fit to eat. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that a promptly-found braxy sheep was 'wholesome fairin'. Any over-ripe specimens were inclined to stop the breath, but no more so than 'hung' pheasants or grouse, which left a mound of squirming maggots on the larder floor. (Archie Cameron, Bare Feet and Tackety Boots. A Boyhood on Rhum. Luath Press, Barr, p 73)