Poor Old Horse

Lyrics

1
We have a poor owd horse
And he’s standing at your door,
And if you wish to let him in
He’ll please you all I’m sure.
Poor owd horse, poor owd horse.

2
He once was a young horse
And in his youthful prime;
His master used to ride on him
And he thought him very fine.
Poor owd horse, poor owd horse.

3
But now he’s getting owd
And his nature doth decay,
He’s forced to nab yon short grass
That grows beneath yon way.
Poor owd horse, poor owd horse.

4
He’s eaten all my hay
And he’s spoile`d all my straw;
He’s neither fit to ride upon,
Nor e’en attempt to draw.
Poor owd horse, poor owd horse.

5
We’ll whip him, hunt him, slash him
And a-hunting let him go,
Over hedges, over ditches,
Over fancy gates and stiles.
Poor owd horse, poor owd horse.

6
I’ll ride him to the huntsman;
So freely I will give
My body to the hounds then,
I’d rather die than live.
Poor owd horse, poor owd horse.

7
Thy poor owd bones,
They shall lie beneath yon ground
And never more be thought of
By all the hunting round.
Poor owd horse, thou must die.

Spoken:- Get up, Bob.

This is a traditional song

Provenance

The Sheffield area has in the past been blessed with at least three mid-winter house-visiting customs each with its own song. (See TYG59 and TYG61). When this one was being recorded in the 1970s it had become much more scarce than the other two.

The song was widely printed on broadsides in England in the nineteenth century so it is not surprising that versions have been found all over England in oral tradition. It was also printed on broadsides in Glasgow, New York and Boston, but, apart from a fragment in Northern Ireland, does not appear to have survived in oral tradition anywhere else but England. The earliest version that has survived is on a sheet c1790 sold by C. Sheppard of London, The Lamentation of an Old Horse. (See Bodleian Ballads website, Harding B12 [50].) Broadside titles vary from the above right down to simply Old Horse. The following version was printed by William Forth of Hull c1870 (Wilberforce Library Collection, Hull, No. 38)

Poor Old Horse

1
You gentlemen and sportsmen,
And men of courage bold,
All you that’s got a good horse,
Take care of him when he’s old,
Then put him in your stable,
And keep him there warm,
Give him good corn and hay,
Pray let him take no harm.
Poor old horse, poor old horse.

2
My clothing was once of
Linsey Woolsey fine,
My tail and main(sic) of length,
And my body it did shine,
But now I am grown old,
And my nature does decay,
My master frowns upon me,
These words I heard him say,
Poor old horse, poor old horse.

3
These pretty little shoulders
That once were plump and round,
They are decayed and rotton,(sic)
I’m feared they are not sound;
Likewise these little nimble legs,
That have run many a mile,
Over hedges, over ditches,
Over vallies, gates and stiles.
Poor old horse, poor old horse.

4
I used to be kept
On the best corn and hay,
That in the fields could be grown,
Or in any meadow gay,
But now, alas! it is not so,
There’s no such food at all;
I’m forced to nip up the short grass
That grows beneath your wall.
Poor old horse, poor old horse.

5
I used to be kept up
All in a stable warm,
To keep my tender body,
From any cold or harm,
But now I am turned out,
In the open fields to go,
To face all kinds of weather,
It’s cold, wind, frost, and snow.
Poor old horse, poor old horse.

6
My hide unto the huntsman,
So freely I would give,
My body to the hounds,
For I’d rather die than live;
So hang him, whip him, strip him,
To the huntsman let him go,
For he’s neither fit to ride upon
Nor in my team to draw.
Poor old horse, poor old horse.

The song as parodied in the 1860s as Poor Old Mike by Harry Clifton, the Music Hall singer, author of Polly Perkins of Paddington Green and a host of others, is still found in oral tradition. Poor Old Mike in similar vein to Poor Old Horse is the lamentation of an old Doncaster jockey rejected for being too old. Clifton wrote many songs set in particular towns and cities all over Britain, presumably to sing in the places where he performed, such as The Calico Printer’s Clerk set in Manchester, and The Land of Green Ginger set in Hull. Many of his songs are still sung in Yorkshire, but few realize that Harry Clifton wrote them.

A useful early reference to the song being used as part of a house visit in Yorkshire can be found in Robert Bell’s Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England, 1857, p184, under the title The Mummers’ Song; or The Poor Old Horse, As sung by the Mummers in the Neighbourhood of Richmond, Yorkshire, at the merrie time of Christmas. What appears to be a fairly standard six double-stanza text close to the broadside texts is followed by the following note:

‘The rustic actor who sings the following song is dressed as an old horse, and at the end of every verse the jaws are snapped in chorus. It is a very old composition and it is now printed for the first time. The ‘old horse’ is probably of Scandinavian origin,-- a reminiscence of Odin’s Sleipnor.’

Bell may well be right about the custom as similar customs are enacted in other parts of Britain, but the song is unlikely to be older than the mid eighteenth century, being a typical piece from the pen of a broadside hack.

The tune could well be a lot older. It has similar phrases to The Duke of Bedford/Six Dukes went a fishing (Roud 78). It has also been utilized for other ritual songs in Yorkshire such as some versions of The Old Tup TYG59 and some versions of the Sword Dancers’ Calling-on Song.

In the early 70s Ruairidh Greig witnessed and recorded the New Year performances of the Dronfield team of Billy Palmer, Chris Ralphs, and Reg who operated the horse-figure, miming various actions in accordance with the stanzas. In stanzas 1, 2 and 4 he snapped the jaws in rhythm; in stanza 3 he lowered the skull and mimed the horse nibbling the grass; in stanza 5 he mimed the horse jumping by raising and lowering its head in a circular movement, and in stanza 6 he lowered the head to the ground and the horse was only raised up again (resurrected) when Chris said ‘Get up, Bob’ at the end of the song. Previously there had been up to ten men and boys in the team covering a wider area around the Sheffield/Derbyshire border, but by the 1970s numbers had dwindled to three and visits were restricted to two private houses and two pubs in Dore.

No special costume was worn by the team, the only disguise being the horse itself, which consisted of a pony’s skull about eighteen inches long, painted a shiny black, with convex glass bottle ends for eyes, painted white with red centres. The skull was mounted on a pole, with a black cloth of heavy cotton fastened to the back of the skull which covered the operator and the wooden handle which raised and lowered the hinged upper jaw. The top of the skull was decorated with small multicoloured wooden balls and plaits, and had two ears of stuffed cone shapes of white cotton.

This same version was previously published in Paul Davenport’s excellent anthology The South Riding Songbook, 1998, p32.