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Here We Come A-Wassailing

[Trad. arr. Watersons]

This was sung by the Watersons (Lal, Mike and Norma Waterson and John Harrison) on their 1965 LP Frost and Fire and reissued on CD in 1990. It was also reissued on the Topic CD sampler The Season Round and in 2004 on the Watersons' 4CD anthology Mighty River of Song. A live version from a Christmas radio programme recorded in December 1980 at Crathorne Hall, Crathorne, North Yorkshire, was published in 2005 on the CD A Yorkshire Christmas.

A.L. Lloyd commented in the Frost and Fire sleeve notes:

At midwinter, ploughing time is near. It was the time when reassuring heroes went dancing and singing through the village with wishes for good luck and increase. If the wishes were to take effect, it was essential that the villagers make some kind of sacrifice. So the perambulating spell-worker would be given food or, later. money. Latter-day luck-visitors, singing their carols for bud and blossom and “cider running out of every gutter-hole”, expected nothing more than a few coppers for a Christmas booze-up. The melody of this widespread wassail song is a member of a vast and ancient tune-family, scattered across Europe as far as the Balkans, usually associated with the rites of midwinter.

John Tams sang quite different verses on the title track of the Albion Dance Band's 1977 TV programme Here We Come A-Wassailing. This recording was first published in 1990 on the cassette Songs from the Shows Volume 1 and included in 2000 on the compilation CD Along the Downs. A shortened version without the initial chorus and without John Tams' spoken words was included on The Guv'nor Vol. 4 and Anthems in Eden: An Anthology of British & Irish Folk 1955-1978. A newer Albion Band recording from 2003 is on An Albion Christmas.

Here We Come A-Wassailing was also recorded by John Kirkpatrick et al. for the CD Wassail! A Traditional Celebration of an English Midwinter.

Lyrics

The Watersons' version

Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green,
Here we come a-wandering so fairly to be seen,
Now is winter-time strangers travel far and near,
And we wish you, send you a happy New Year.

Bud and blossom, bud and blossom, bud and bloom and bear,
So we may have plenty of cider all next year;
Apples are in capfulls are in bushel bags and all,
And there's cider running out of every gutter hole.

Down here in the muddy lane there sits an old red fox,
Starving and a-shivering and licking his old chops;
Bring us out your table and spread it if you please,
And give us hungry wassailers a bit of bread and cheese.

I've got a little purse and it's made of leather skin,
A little silver sixpence it would line it well within;
Now is winter-time; strangers travel far and near,
And we wish you, send you a happy New Year.

The Albion Band's version

[spoken chorus:]
Old apple tree, we wassail thee
And hoping thou wilt bear
Hatfulls, capfulls, three bushel bagfulls,
And a little heap under the stairs.
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip hooray!

Here we come a-wassailing among the leaves so green,
Here we come a-wandering so fair to be seen,
Love and joy come to you, and to your wassail too,
And God bless you and send you a happy New Year,
And God send you a happy New Year.

We are not daily beggars that beg from door to door,
But we are neighbours' children who you have seen before,
Love and joy come to you, and to your wassail too,
And God bless you and send you a happy New Year,
And God send you a happy New Year.

|spoken:]
Christmas time, as we know it, grew out of ancient ritual celebrations which were intended to put new life into the dead earth, and to cheer our peasant ancestors for the deep midwinter nights. Here and there, the old festivities still survive. On Christmas eve, the inhabitants of Dunster, on the northern edge of Exmoor, keep up the once widespread custom of burning the ashen faggot, which for generations past they celebrated in the 14th century village inn.

Call up the master of this house, put on his golden ring,
Bring us in a glass of beer, and better we shall sing.

|spoken:]
Ash faggot burning is associated with the Saxons. It was one of many pagan customs which were absorbed in the Christian Christmas festivals as the early church extended its influence over the country life.

Acknowledgements

Transcribed from the singing of the Watersons by Garry Gillard