Maying/Beltane Songs: Bedford May Day Carol

I've been a-wandering all the night, And the best part of the day; Now I return back home again-- To bring you a branch of May. A branch of May, I bring you here, And at your door I stand, It’s nothing but a sprout, but it's well budded out, By the work of the Lord's hand. My song is done, and I must be gone, I can no longer stay-- Gods bless you all, both great and small, And send you a joyful May!

I first heard this song on John Langstaff Sings The Jackfish and More Songs for Singing Children, originally recorded in the 1950s. It is one of my favorite Maying songs.

Below are the lyrics of the earliest collected version of the Bedford May Carol or Bedfordshire May Day Carol. This English traditional song dates back at least to the 19th century. It is also known as the May Day Song, Mayer’s Song, and The May Day Carol.

The first version of this song was collected from Hinwick, a hamlet in northwest Bedfordshire. Hinwick is now part of Bedford district.  This song first appeared under the name Bedfordshire May Day Carol, in the book English Traditional Songs and Carols collected and edited by Lucy E. Broadwood,  1908.

1. I’ve been rambling all the night, And the best part of the day; And now I am returning back again, I have brought you a branch of May. 2. A branch of May, my dear, I say, Before your door I stand, It’s nothing but a sprout, but it’s well budded out, By the work of our Lord’s hand. 3. Go down in your dairy and fetch me a cup, A cup of your sweet cream, And, if I should live to tarry in the town, I will call on you next year. 4. The hedges and the fields they are so green, As green as any leaf, Our Heavenly Father waters them With His Heavenly dew so sweet. 5. When I am dead and in my grave, And covered with cold clay, The nightingale will sit and sing, And pass the time away. 6. Take a Bible in your hand, And read a chapter through, And, when the day of Judgment comes, The Lord will think on you. 7. I have a bag on my right arm, Draws up with a silken string, Nothing does it want but a little silver To line it well within. 8. And now my song is almost done, I can no longer stay, God bless you all both great and small, I wish you a joyful May.

I located not only the originally recorded lyrics, but an illuminating note from Lucy E. Broadwood about this Maying Song in the article Bedfordshire May Day Carol on the massive website, Hymns and Carols of Christmas, NonChristmas section, 1996-2020.

This carol, contributed by Sir Ernest Clarke, is sung at Hinwick. It should be compared with “The Moon Shines Bright - Sharp” and “Hampshire Mummers Christmas Carol.” The words of course allude to the undoubtedly pagan May Day customs against which the Puritan Stubbes declaims in his Anatomie of Abuses, (1583). On the first day of May young men and women were wont to rise a little before midnight and to walk to some neighbouring wood, making music with horns and other instruments. There they would break boughs of hawthorn and other trees, weave garlands, and wander till sunrise, washing their faces in the May dew so magical in its properties. The boughs were then planted before the house-doors, and nose-gays left at the thresholds; carols being sung, and gifts asked for in song. Countess Martinengo-Cesaresco, in her excellent Essays in the Study of Folk Songs, quotes the words of a March Day song sung by Greek children of Rhodes more than two thousand years ago. This, of which a version is sung still by Greek country folk, is strikingly like our May Day and Wassail Songs. It is supposed that the Puritans supplied the gloomy reminders of death in these Christmas and May Carols.

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Maying/Beltane Songs
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