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Folk Song Information

Song TitleBen Bolt
Roud No.2563
Collected FromUnknown
LocationUnknown
CountyUnknown
Collected ByWilliams, Alfred
Alternative Title
Tune
Date
Source PrimaryWSRO: 2598/36 Packet 5 - Miscellaneous: Williams, A: MS collection No Mi 531
Source SecondaryUnpublished
Recording
 
Song Lyrics
Verse 1

Oh, don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt,
Sweet Alice with hair so brown?
She wept with delight when you gave her a smile,
And trembled with fear at a frown.
In the old churchyard in the Valley, Ben Bolt,
In a corner obscure and alone,
They have fitted a slab of granite so gay,
And sweet Alice lies under the stone.

Verse 2

Oh, don't you remember the wood, Ben Bolt,
Near the green sunny slope of the hill,
Where oft we have sung neath its wide spreading shade
And kept time to the click of the mill?
The mill has gone to decay, Ben Bolt,
And a quiet now reigns all around,
See: the old rustic porch with its roses so sweet
Lies scattered and fallen to the ground.

Verse 3

Oh, don't you remember the school, Ben Bolt,
And the master so kind and true,
And the dear little nook by the clear running brook
Where we gathered the flowers as they grew?
O'er the master's grave grows the grass, Ben Bolt,
And the running brook is now dry,
And of all the old friends who were schoolmates there,
There remains none but you, Ben, and I.
 
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Notes
Transcribed and edited by Chris Wildridge, 2007.
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 Contact Details

 Wiltshire Studies
 Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre
 Cocklebury Road
 Chippenham
 Wiltshire, SN15 3QN
 Email: localstudies@wiltshire.gov.uk


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