Ebernoe Horn Fair - Horn Fair Song

Horn Fair Song

As I was a-walking one fine summer morn,

So soft was the wind and the waves on the corn.

I met a pretty damsel upon a grey mare,

And she was a-riding upon a grey mare.

"Now take me up behind you fair maid for to ride",

"Oh no and then, Oh no, for my mammy she would chide,

And then my dear old daddy would beat me full sore,

And never let me ride on his grey mare no more."

"If you would see Horn Fair you must walk on your way,

I will not let you ride on my grey mare today,

You'd rumple all my muslin and uncurl my hair,

And leave me all distrest to be seen at Horn Fair."

"O fairest of damsels, how can you say No?

With you I do intend to Horn Fair for to go,

We'll join the best of company when we do get there,

With horns on their heads, boys, the finest at the Fair."

This song also seems to have been used at a Horn Fair at Charlton in Kent which, after a history dating at least from the 16th century, died out in 1872. In 1951 Mr Morrish of Great Allfields Farm, Balls Cross reintroduced the song. Mr Tom Stemp, then aged 75, said he could well remember it being sung by an old Ebernoe woodman, David Baker, who died in 1943 at the age of eighty. The folk duo Spiers and Boden also sing this version of the song.