> The Watersons > Songs > Fare Thee Well, Cold Winter

Fare Thee Well, Cold Winter / Farewell He

[ Roud 1034 / 803 ; Ballad Index FSC41 ; trad.]

Lal and Norma Waterson sang Fare Thee Well, Cold Winter on the Watersons' 1981 album Green Fields, and Norma Waterson and Eliza Carthy sang it in 1999 on the Waterson:Carthy CD Broken Ground. The Lal and Norma recording was reissued in 2003 on the Watersons' The Definitive Collection. A.L. Lloyd commented in the original album's sleeve notes:

Sometimes called Farewell He in various forms this was once spread all over England. Baring-Gould noted it in Devon, and Frank Kidson found a fairly long version near Leeds (he called it Let Him Go). Usually, a girl is the 'victim' of the song. Mike Yates recorded this set from a 90 year old singer, George “Tom” Newman, who lived near Bampton, and sometimes accompanied the morris men with his “one-man band”.

The song was also included in Steeleye Span's hit single All Around My Hat which was mixed up of three verses from Farewell He together with just the chorus from All Around My Hat.

Lyrics

Lal and Norma Waterson sing Fare Thee Well, Cold Winter

Fare thee well, cold winter
And fare thee well, cold frost;
Nothing have I gained by thee
But a false young girl at last.
But if she's got another one
And they both can't agree,
She's welcome to stay with him
And think no more of me.

She wrote to me a letter
To say that she was sad;
I quickly wrote the answer back
To say that I were glad.
She may keep her paper
And I will keep my time,
For what I'd have a true young girl
I'd search the world around.

One day that I was walking
All through the shady grove,
'Twas there I met me own true love,
She handed me a rose.
Thinking I should keep it
To never pass her by,
For what I'd have a true young girl
I'd lay me down and die.

False deceitful young girls
Are easy to be found,
For what I'd have a true young girl
I'd search this world around.
And if she's got another one
And they can't both agree,
She's welcome to stay with him
And think no more of me.

I'll be all smiles tonight, boys,
I'll be all smiles tonight
If me heart should break tomorrow
I'll be all smiles tonight.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Greer Gilman for the transcription.