Rewards and Fairies

Brookland Road

     I was very well pleased with what I knowed,
     I reckoned myself no fool—
     Till I met with a maid on the Brookland Road
     That turned me back to school.

          Low down—low down!
          Where the liddle green lanterns shine—
          Oh!  maids, I’ve done with ‘ee all but one,
          And she can never be mine!
     ‘Twas right in the middest of a hot June night,
     With thunder duntin’ round,
     And I seed her face by the fairy light
     That beats from off the ground.

     She only smiled and she never spoke,
     She smiled and went away;
     But when she’d gone my heart was broke,
     And my wits was clean astray.

     Oh!  Stop your ringing and let me be—
     Let be, O Brookland bells!
     You’ll ring Old Goodman * out of the sea,
     Before I wed one else!

     Old Goodman’s farm is rank sea sand,
     And was this thousand year;
     But it shall turn to rich plough land
     Before I change my dear!

     Oh!  Fairfield Church is water-bound
     From Autumn to the Spring;
     But it shall turn to high hill ground
     Before my bells do ring!

     Oh!  leave me walk on the Brookland Road,
     In the thunder and warm rain—
     Oh!  leave me look where my love goed
     And p’raps I’ll see her again!
          Low down—low down!
          Where the liddle green lanterns shine—
          Oh!  maids, I’ve done with ‘ee all but one,
          And she can never be mine!

               *Earl Godwin of the Goodwin Sands(?)