Publication
Published with “Hal o’ the Draft“, in Puck of Pook’s Hill (1906).
See also “Poor Honest Men”.
Peter Bellamy’s rendition can be found here.
Notes on the Text
[Verse 1 Line 3] Them that asks no questions isn’t told a lie: Oliver Goldsmith: “She Stoops to Conquer” (1773): ‘Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no fibs.’
[‘Verse 1 line 7] Brandy for the parson: later used as the title of a short story about brandy smuggling and its film adaptation. [D.H.]
[Verse 2 Line 4] brishwood: Sussex dialect for brushwood.
[Verse 4 Line 1] King George’s men: soldiers or excise-men hunting the smugglers.
[Verse 6 Line 3] Valenciennes: lace, originally produced (c. 1705-80) in the town of that name in Northern France.
[P.H./D.M.]
©Philip Holberton and Donald Mackenzie 2020 All rights reserved