Familiar Songs - Their Authors & Histories

300 traditional songs, inc sheet music with full piano accompaniment & lyrics.

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THE FLO WEBS OF THE FOREST
571
In har'st at the shearin', nae youths now are jeerin', The bandsters are runkled, and lyart, and gray, At fair or at preachin', nae wooin' nae fleechin',
The flowers of the forest are a' wede away. At e'en, in the gloamin', nae swankies are roam in', 'Bout stacks, 'mang the lassies, at bogle to play; But each ane sits dreary, lamenting her dearie, The flowers of the forest are a' wede away.
Dool and wae for the order sent our lads to the border, The English for ance by guile wan the day: The flowers of the forest, that fought aye the foremost, The prime o' our land now lie cauld in the clay. We'll hear nae mair liltin' at our ewe-milkin',
Women and bairns are dowie and wae, Sighin' and moanin', on ilka green loanin',
The flowers of the forest are a' wede away.
THE TIGHT LITTLE ISLAND.
Thomas Dibdin, author of "The Tight Little Island," was the eldest son of the great English sea-song writer, and was born in London, in 1771. Garrick was his godĀ­father, and when he was four years old he appeared on the stage as Cupid. He became actor, author, and composer, and wrote more than a thousand songs, few of which have outlived him. His farce of "Mother Goose" brought the managers of Co vent Garden Theatre a hundred thousand dollars, and "The High-Mettled Racer" made a clear profit of sixteen thousand dollars for its proprietors; but Dibdiu died in poverty while compiling an edition of his father's songs, September 16, 1841.
William Reeve, who arranged the music for "The Tight Little Island" from the air of "The Rogue's March," was born in London in 1775. He was for a time an organist in Devonshire, but returned to London, where he' was an actor and musician in theatres, and a successful dramatic composer, especially of comic pieces