Around

the Green Gravel

Source:
Lucy Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland
English County Songs
London: Leadenhall Press, 1 893

& <#> 4 œ
# 3
˙™
Chorus:
œ™ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ

J
A - round the green gra - vel the grass is so green;

#<#> œ
& Ϫ J
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙™
All the pret - ty fair maids are plain to be seen;

& <#> Ϫ Ϫ
# j j
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ œ
1 . Wash them in milk, and clothe them in silk,

& <#> Ϫ
# j
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙
Write their names down with a gold pen and ink.

2. All but [poor Mary]* her sweetheart is dead;

She has left off her wedding to turn round her head.

*or "Miss Jenny"

Game Directions (from source)

Formation: A circle of children stand hand in hand, one child in the middle.

Action: The children sing, and at the words "turn round [her] head," the child named by the one in the
middle has to turn to face outwards and join hands again. The game goes on till all the children have
turned to face outwards.

Background Information (from source)

This dismal little game, which has been found in many parts of the country, is obviously a dramatic
representation of mourning, and the suggested explanation of "green gravel" as a corruption of "green grave"
is almost undoubtedly the right one. In the Scottish lowlands, about a hundred years ago [circa 1 790], the
attendants on a corpse newly laid out went out of the death-chamber, returning to it backwards. Is there
possibly a reference to this or a similar custom in the words "turn round [her] head" in this game?

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