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Angela Hicken
Madelaine - the book thief
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Rachel the editor- Jane the Archivist
Cordelia Gray- Friday Next
- Jacky Percival
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Speed The Plough: A Country Song Find!
This poem was passed to me by an archivist at Hampshire Records Office
Speed The Plough: A Country Song
by Cicely Fox Smith, 1916As I was a-walking on Chilbolton Down,
I saw an old farmer there driving to town,
A-jogging to market behind his old grey,
So I jumped up behind him and thus he did say:
"My boy he be fightin', a fine strappin' lad,
I gave he to England, the only boy I had;
My boy he be fightin' out over the foam,
An' here be I frettin' an' mopin' at home."
"An' if there be times when 'tis just about hard
Without his strong arm in the field an' the yard,
Why, I plucks up my heart then an' flicks the old grey,
An' this is the tune that her heels seem to say:"
"'Oh the hoof an' the horn, the roots an' the corn,
The flock in the fold an' the pigs in the pen,
Rye-grass an' clover, an' barns brimmin' over,
They feed the King's horses an' feed the King's men'"
"Then I looks at my furrows to see the corn spring,
Like little green sword-blades all drawn for the King,
An' 'tis 'Get up, old Bess, there be plenty to do,
For old chaps like me an' old horses like you."
"My boy be in Flanders, he's young an' he's bold,
But they will not have we, lass, for we be too old;
So step it out cheerful, an' kip up your heart,
For you an' me, Bess, we be doin' our part --"
"'Wi' the shocks an' the sheaves, the lambs an' the beeves,
The ducks an' the geese an' the good speckled hen,
Rye-grass an' clover, an' barns brimmin' over,
To feed the King's horses an' feed the King's men.'"
20 October 2009 from Angela Hicken
Finds
- And here is one we missed
- And, finally, one for Hallowe'en
- How did we miss this one?
- John Wyndham's Hampshire connection
- Reading the countryside
- New Milton's new Milton
- Heywood Sumner in South Gorley
- PG Wodehouse in Emsworth
- Walking In My Sleep
- Nicola Slade's Victorian Mysteries
- England's Lost Eden
- June Tate
- Bullington
- Speed The Plough: A Country Song
- A Hampshire scarecrow: Worzel Gummidge
- Queens Arms
- Haslar Hospital Memories
- Magical writing for children
- Inspired by the Tichborne Claimant
- Gypsy Girl Trilogy
- Rev. Gilbert White (1720-1793) and The Natural History of Selborne
- Coffee with Date and Walnut Loaf
- The Play Room
- Kipling's dislikes
- Deadman's Plack
- Netley Abbey Ruins
- Portsea Sagas
- Lilian Harry's Family Connections
- Crossing the Bar
- John Betjeman and Bevis Hillier
- Growing up in Portsmouth
- More Edward Thomas
- Two blokes and a shed
- In the shadow of the Cathedral
- Hampshire Days
- Mr Hardy Writes a Poem
- "Steep" is apt
- Thackeray in Fareham
- Forgotten Favourite?
- Daniel Clay's 'Broken'
- Pell and Tess
- Edward Thomas and Froxfield
- Betjeman explores hidden corners of Hampshire
- Rebecca Smith
- Right of Access
- Hampshire songs, poems, and ditties
- In this house
- Words & Walks
- England, Their England
- An Ode to a Road
- The story of a house
- Crime Connections to the City
- John Keat's Ode to Autumn
- William Lisle Bowles, poet
- Future Princes of Winchester
- Spike Island by Philip Hoare
- The marriage of souls
- Rural Rides: William Cobbett
- Elinor Brent-Dyer remembered
- Dornford Yates' Hampshire connection
- The Marlows, their maker and stealing a corner of Dorset
- Saint Cross: England's Oldest Almshouse
- Winchester the whole day through
- HOW TO BE A BETTER PERSON
- Otterbourne's Enid Blyton? Charlotte M. Yonge (1823-1901)
- Odo's Hanging is missing
- The Warden
- Charles Kingsley's Letters
- Owslebury Bottom
- See it My Way
- Introduction to Melesina Trench
- Some Hampshire road signs read Jane Austen Country
- Flora Thompson: published poet
Recent posts
- Virginia Smith remembered
- Mary Sumner
- A272: An Ode to a Road (by Andy)
- The hunt continues
- Winchester MP Mark Oaten to publish book
- Chalet School
- Bags of Books and Enthusiasm
- Chalet School author
- Poetry in the pub
- Wealth of words in Winchester
- Hampshire Gets Going
Help the team
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