England

England is the largest and most populous constituent country of the United Kingdom accounting for more than 83% of the total UK population. It occupies most of the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and shares land borders with fellow home nations Scotland, to the north, and Wales, to the west. Elsewhere, it is bordered by the sea.

England is named after the Angles, one of a number of Germanic tribes believed to have originated in Angeln in Northern Germany, who settled in England in the 5th and 6th centuries. This is also the origin of its Latin name Anglia.

There are four primary components of the United Kingdom, each with their own diverse and distinctive folk music forms - England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. In addition, there are numerous distinct and semi-distinct folk traditions from the Isle of Man, Cornwall and the Channel Islands, as well as immigrants from Jamaica, India, the Commonwealth and other parts of the world.

English traditional music is an extremely broad concept, as there is much variety between the different regions of England. Folk music varies across Northumbria, Kent, Sussex and Yorkshire, and even within cities like London.

Click here for further information

Back to Lyrics/Music Directory

A Trip to Paris

Arnold's Circle

click to listen

Black Nag

click to listen

Boatman, The

click here to download lyrics

If I could choose the life I pleased
Then I would be a boatman
Along the canals and the rivers free
No hasty words are spoken
My only law is the river breeze
Would take me to the open seas
If I could choose the life I pleased
Then I would be a boatman

If I could choose the life I pleased
Then I would be a rover
And if the road was not for me
Then I would choose another
Across the mountains and the valleys deep
I would take these weary feet
If I could choose the life I pleased
Then I would be a rover

But these things are so hard for me
I cannot choose my own destiny
And all the things that I want to see
Are so unclean

I wish I could choose the life I please
But I am not a free man
Others choose my destiny
But my will's never broken
I know someday I will be
Everything that I dreamed I'd be
If I could choose the life I pleased
I would be a boatman.

Circassian Circle

click to listen

Dargason

click to listen

click to listen to 2nd version

De'l Take the Wars

Duke of Kent's Waltz

click to listen

Greensleeves and Yellow Lace

Galopede

click to listen

Gathering Peascods

click here to download lyrics

click to listen

click to listen to 2nd version

Gathering peascods,
Amidst the rows so green,
With bonny Bet, my queen;
Tossing the peascods
I' faith we had rare fun,
The work seem'd never done;
'Twas sweetest summer weather,
I plucked the peascods fast,
Then in her apron cast,
So being together,
Each turn I did not miss
To pluck as well a kiss.

Shelling of peascods
Beside the pretty wench,
A-seated on one bench;
Shelling of peascods
Into a maple bowl,
And she a merry soul;
So shelling without missing
A single pea, I said,
My labours must be paid
Only by kissing.
Fly winter! I were fain
'Twere peascods time again!

Hole in the Wall

click to listen

click to listen to 2nd version

Lovely Nancy

click to listen

Picking Up Sticks

Royal Empress Tango

click to listen

Sellenger's Round

click to listen

Square Tango

Trip to Paris

Upon a Summer's Day

Willow Tree

click to listen

Morris Dancers

It may be possible to do without dancing entirely. Instances have been known of young people passing many, many months successively without being at any ball of any description, and no material injury accrue either to body or mind; but when a beginning is made--when the felicities of rapid motion have once been, though slightly, felt--it must be a very heavy set that does not ask for more.
~Jane Austen