The Barley Mow

The Barley Mow

Performed by Jack French after The Nutting Girl sung by Cyril Poacher

Recorded on “The Barley Mow” Songs from the Village Inn collected by Peter Kennedy, HMV E.M.I. 7EG 8288 Side 2, Track part 2.

Total Duration: 7 min.  34 sec.

Recorded under the auspices of the EFDSS.

The Barley Mow: Kennedy’s’ notes to the song (tune & text p. 595, no. 265) are worth quoting in full:

 All over southern England this was the song to be sung at Harvest Supper. Here is a typical Cornish description taken from J. C. Tregarthen’s John Penrose: A Romance of the Land’s End:

‘That night, as our custom is at ‘guldice’ [harvest supper], the firstling of the flock was served for supper with fresh-cut vegetables and baked figgy pudding to follow. Supper over, Miss Jennifer took down last year’s neck from near the blunderbuss and hump in its place the new neck, bedizened with pink ribbons while we harvesters upstanding sang The Barley Mow.’

The ‘neck’ is the last sheaf of corn1 or barley cut at the harvest. In some areas, particularly Somerset, there was a ceremony preceding the harvest supper which was called ‘crying the neck’ It was the custom for a young man to run with the last sheaf from the field into the farmhouse while all the women came out and threw buckets of water over him.

Kennedy 1984, p. 623

Cf. also Chappell PMOT, 745.

  1. Now here’s good luck to the gill-pot,
    Good luck to the Barley Mow,
    Here’s good luck to the gill-pot,
    Good luck to the Barley Mow,
    The gill-pot, half-a-gill, quarter-gill,
    Nipperkin, and a round bowl,
    Here’s good luck, good luck,
    Good luck to the Barley Mow,
  2. Now here’s good luck to the half-a-pint,
    Good luck to the Barley Mow,
    Here’s good luck to the half-a-pint,
    Good luck to the Barley Mow,
    The half-a-pint, gill-pot, half-a-gill, quarter-gill,
    Nipperkin, and a round bowl,
    Here’s good luck, good luck,
    Good luck to the Barley Mow,
  3. pint-pot
  4. quart-pot
  5. half-gallon
  6. gallon
  7. half a barrel
  8. barrel
  9. landlord
  10. landlady
  11. daughter
  12. slavey 2
  13. brewer
  14. company

Last:

And here’s good luck to the tavern [or name of tavern] 3
Good luck to the Barley Mow,

Here’s good luck to the tavern
Good luck to the Barley Mow,
The tavern
The company
The brewer
The slavey
The daughter
The landlady
The landlord
The barrel
The half a barrel
The gallon
Half-a-gallon
Quart-pot
Pint-pot
Half-a-pint
Gill-pot
Half-a-gill
Quarter-gill
Nipperkin, and a round bowl,
Here’s good luck, good luck,
Good luck to the Barley Mow,

Given in Kennedy 1984, p. 595, with notes on p. 623, Kennedy notes that this song is generally sung by one of the regulars at the end of the evening in the pub as a test of sobriety.

1 Here ‘corn’ is a generic term for cereal crops; wheat, barley, oats or rye, in particular.
2 Maid-of-all-work (O.E.D.)
3 “The tavern” is given in Kennedy as the last verse but is not on this particular recording.