Sleepytown (I) - Folklorist

“Sleepytown (I)”

Description

Singer, tired of his old job, hires out as a laborer to farmer Adam Mitchell, of Sleepytoon. The farmer's work (no more than ten hours a day, but with strict rules and fines) is described; with the season ended, singer and friends are off to celebrate

Supplemental text

Sleepytown (I)
  Complete text(s)

          *** A ***

From John Ord, Ord's Bothy Songs and Ballads (1995 John Donald edition),
pp. 225-226. No source information given.

It happened at last Whitsunday,
  I tired o' my place,
And I gaed up to Insch to fee,
  My fortune for to chase.

      And sing airrie erritie adie,
      And sing airrie erritie an.

I met in wi' Adam Mitchell,
  To fee we did presume,
He's a fairmer in Kinnethmont,
  And he lives at Sleepytown.

If you and I agree, he says,
  You'll have the fairest play,
For I never bid my servants work
  Above then hours a day.

If a' be true ye tell to me,
  I think the place will suit;
Guid-faith, I think I'll gang wi' you,
  But ye're an ugly brute.

'Twas on a Monday mornin'
  I gaed hame to Sleepytown,
And he ranked us in guid order
  To lay his turnips down.

I was sent to drive the dung,
  Likewise my neighbour Knowles;
But soon the rain it did come on,
  And the order cam' to lowse.

The rain it still increased;
  The son was at the mill
For meal, old Adam Mitchell said,
  Our bellies for to fill.

The rain it soon went over,
  And the day began to break;
And our next orders were to scrape
  Our dinners frae the secks.

We'll ne'er refuse your orders,
  Whate'er ye bid us do;
But to eat the scrapin's o' your secks
  Is a thing we'll never do.

Do ye refuse what I command,
  Ye scoundrels that ye are?
Ye bargained for ten hours a day,
  Refuse then if ye daur.

But if the one thing winna dee,
  The ither I can try;
I go and get the kitchen-maid
  To mix it through the dry.

The order was to bed at nine,
  And never leave the town,
And for every time we left it
  We'd be fined half a crown.--

Knowles he was fined mony's a time,
  But never lost the heart;
And I mysel' was fined a pound
  For turnin' up a cart.

We never heeded Adam,
  But aye we took the pass,
Sometimes to buy tobacco,
  Sometimes to see the lass.

But now the term's come at last,
  The trifle's safely won,
And we'll awa to Rhynie Muir,
  And there we'll have some fun.

When we are owre in Alford,
  We'll gar the glass gae roun',
And we'll tell them o' the usage
  That we got at Sleepytown.

We'll maybe see old Adam yet
  Just at his dish o' brose;
And we'll gie him or pocket-napkin
  To dicht his stuffy nose.

      And sing airrie erritie adie,
      And sing airrie erritie an.


The order was to bed at nine,
  And never leave the town,
And for every time we left it
  We'd be fined half-a-crown.

Knowles he was fined mony's a time,
  But never lost the heart;
And I mysel' was fined a pound
  For turnin' up a cart.

We never heeded Adam,
  But aye we took the pass,
Sometimes to buy tobacco,
  Sometimes to see the lass.

But now the term's come at last,
  The trifle's safely won,
And we'll awa to Rhynie Muir,
  And there we'll have some fun.

When we are owre in Alford,
  We'll gar the glass gae roun',
And we'll tell them o' the usage
  That we got at Sleepytown.

We'll maybe see old Adam yet
  Just at his dish o' brose;
And we'll gie him oor pocket-napkin
  To dicht his stuffy nose.

Notes

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Scottish workers hired out as contract farm laborers, living in "bothies," barn dormitories. Many "bothy ballads" were composed there, including this one. - PJS

Paul compares this to a wide variety of lumbering songs, which have the same theme of working too hard and then partying the off-season away. The song type is hardly limited to lumbermen; there are, e.g., many Australian shearing songs of the same type. Compare also Scottish songs such as "The Barnyards o Delgaty." - RBW

Recordings

J. C. Mearns and friends, "Sleepytoon" [2 verses missing] (on Lomax43, LomaxCD1743)

References