> The Watersons > Songs > Hares in the Old Plantation

Hares in the Old Plantation

[ Roud 363 ; Ballad Index K249 ; trad.]

The Watersons sang Hares in the Old Plantation in 1981 on their album Green Fields and Martin Carthy sang it in 1996 on Waterson:Carthy's second album Common Tongue. A.L. Lloyd commented in the first recording's sleeve notes:

The Eastern counties and up to Yorkshire was the main ground for this poaching song. Frank Kidson's tireless correspondent Mr Lolley sent a version of it from Goole, and he considered the words so deficient in rhyme and reason as to be "not to be worth the trouble of transcription". Too fussy by far. Later, Vaughan Williams recorded a set from a singer named Noah Fisher, and this is the version the Watersons use.

And Martin Carthy said in the Common Tongue sleeve notes:

Mr Shadrach Haden, sometimes know as “Shepherd“, came from the village of Bampton in the Bush which is of course the home of the still famous and very independent morris team, and from him Cecil Sharp learned many great songs including Hares in the Old Plantation. It's quite unusual I think in the sense that it is a song about hunger for food, and I really can't think of too many others. It's also a favourite among gypsies, who generally sing a much more rambly tune than the one which Mr Haden had.

The Copper family sing a different song, called Dogs and Ferrets, on the subject of a hare in our plantation on their CD Coppersongs 2: The Living Tradition of the Copper Family.

Lyrics

Green Fields version	Common Tongue version
When I was young and in me prime Don't you think it was provoking? I had two dogs all of me own I kept 'em for my sporting
When I had two dogs and an airgun too I kept them for my keeping All for to kill some game at night When the keepers they were sleeping	Oh I've got a dog got a good dog too And I have it in my keeping To catch those hares that run by night While the game-keeper lies sleeping
I and my dog went out one night To view a habitation What started one, right away she run Right away into my plantation	Oh me and my dogs we went out one night To view a habitation Up jumped one and away she run Right away into my plantation
	She kicked she squalled she hollered out I thought that she was running I said O puss oh do lie still For your uncle he is a-coming
	I picked her up and I cracked her neck Oh quickly I did paunch her She proved to be of the female kind How glad was I that I caught her
Before I could get half a field or more Or very little further Up jumped another old hare and away dogs went Made her shriek murder	And as I was a-going over Hartford field Scarce half a field or further Up jumped another one and away she run And I made her shriek murder
Up she jumped and followed out aunt When the dogs they stopped her running Oh pray, poor puss, do you lay still For your uncle he's a-coming
I picked her up and I broke her neck And into me pocket put her Thinks I to meself I'd better be a-going Before I meets a looker	I picked her up I smoothed her out Into my pocket put her I says to my dogs oh we must be going Before we meet some looker
I went into a neighbour's house And I asked him what he'd give me He said he'd give me a crown a brace If I would bring him fifty	So I went down to my neighbour's house And I asked him what he'd give me He said he'd give me a crown a brace If I would bring him fifty
I went into a public house And there I gets quite mellow I spent a crown, another one throwed down Wasn't I a good-hearted fellow?	So I went down to the public house And there I got quite mellow Laid a crown another one laid down Don't you think that I am a good fellow
	Oh I've got a dog got a good dog too And I have it in my keeping To catch those hares that run by night While the gamekeeper lies sleeping

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Greer Gilman for the transcription of the Watersons' Green Fields version. The Common Tongue version was transcribed by Garry Gillard, with assistance from Wolfgang Hell.