Cecil Sharp's Note 98 (1916)

No. 98. The Tree in the Wood

Miss Mason prints an interesting Devon variant in Nursery Rhymes and Country Songs (p. 26), and there is another version from the same county in the Rev. S. Baring-Gould’s Songs of the West (No. 104, 1st ed.). In his note to the latter, Mr. Baring-Gould says that under the name of “Ar parc caer” the song is well known in Brittany (see Luzel’s Chansons Populaires de la Basse Bretagne). There are also French (“Le Bois Joli”) and Danish forms of the song. See also the Journal of the Folk-Song Society (volume iii, p. 277); Journal of the Welsh Folk-Song Society (volume i, p. 40); and Folk-Songs from Somerset (No. 93).

The version given here has not been previously published. The tune, which is in the Æolian mode, is a variant of “Come all you worthy Christian men” (No. 91).

This is one of the easiest of all accumulative songs, both to learn and to sing, and it may, of course, be lengthened indefinitely, according to the taste and inventive powers of the singer.