Page:English folk-carols.djvu/82

 obviously incorrect "On Christmas day in the morn" (which Mrs. Wyatt gave me) the one given in the text which is the usual broadside rendering.

Variants of "The Holly and the Ivy" are printed in Bramley and Stainer's and Chope's collections. The words are also on a broadside by Wadsworth of Birmingham.

Mrs. Phillips could remember no more than the first stanza; the remaining stanzas have been copied from a broadside. Under the title "All you that are to mirth inclined" the carol is printed, words and tune, by Bramley and Stainer, R. R. Chope and Davies Gilbert; words only, by Sandys and many broadside printers. The tune, which is often used by carol singers (see Folk-Song Society's Journal, IV, pp. 15, 17 et seq.), is a variant of "Searching for Lambs" (Folk-Songs from Somerset. No. 96).

Mr. Thomas could only remember the words of the first stanza, which are given in the text exactly as he sang them to me. As I have been unable to trace the carol to which these lines belong I have added two stanzas from another and very similar set of words, consisting of three verses, entitled "The Lamb", which I found on a broadside by Pitts. Except for a general likeness I have no reason to connect this carol with that which Mr. Thomas gave me.

No alteration has been made in the words. The carol, set to a modern tune, is published in Bramley and Stainer's collection; while three traditional versions are printed in The Folk-Song Society's Journal (II, pp. 126–7). The words are on a broadside by Batchelar.

This carol has been already printed in Folk-Songs from Somerset (No. 126). The only alteration that has been made in Mr. Rapsey's words is the substitution of the word "pray" for "say" in the penultimate lines of the first two stanzas. Mr. Rapsey told me that the carol was taught to him by his mother and that, in company with other children, he used to sing it in the streets of Bridgwater at Christmas time. I do not know of another printed version of the carol.