Sunday, May 20, 2012
and at the gleanin' he'll find me leanin' -- Wateringbury, Kent -- 1926 -- "the saddest ballad of them all"
Speranza
1926
sowin's pretty good
reapin' ain't so bad
scarin' off the crows
suits a farmer's lad
but if you ask'es me
the thing that suits a fellow
is a little bit of straw to suck
to keep your fancies mellow
when you're leanin' on the gate beside
the pond that lies beside the side
of farmer's stacks of new mown hay
it's just atwix the ricks
beside the barn where farmers sticks inside
the chicks he only hatch'd today
leanin', leanin'
I'm champion down our way
they say
at leanin' on the gate beside the pond that lies beside
the side of farmer's stacks of new mown hay
that he's been gleanin'
while I've been leanin' ..... all day
had a lurcher once
better than a gal
poacher? Well, a bit
but 'e was a pal
now there's just a mound
underneath the el-lum
reckon folks would laugh at I
if I was to tell 'em.
why I'm leanin' on the gate beside the pond that lies beside
the side the hedge where my old dog would play
it's just a'cos from there I see the sunlight
glintin' through the tree
upon the grave where 'e do lie
sleepin', sleepin'
goodbye is hard to say
that's why
I'm leanin' on the gate beside the pond that lies beside
the side of farmer's stacks of new-mown hay
and at the gleanin'
he'll find me leanin' ..... all day
Hugh E. Wright / Thomas Case Sterndale Bennett.
T C Sterndale Bennett was inspired by the area of the mill and ponds, particularly the lower mill pond in Wateringbury, Kent.
The gate mentioned in the song was towards the beginning of the track, at the upper mill end, leading to Warden House.
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