Heigh Ho Sing Ivy

Sung by John, Bob and Ron Copper on the Song for Every Season LP.

My father had an acre of land, heigh-ho, sing ivy,
My father had an acre of land, with a bunch of green holly and ivy.

He ploughed it with a team of rats, heigh-ho, sing ivy,
He ploughed it with a team of rats, with a bunch of green holly and ivy.

He sowed it with a pepper-box, etc.
He harrowed it with a small tooth comb, etc.
He rolled it with a rolling-pin, etc.
He reaped it with the blade of his knife, etc.
He wheeled it home in a wheelbarrow, etc.
He threshed it with a hazel twig, etc.
He wimmed it on the tail of his shirt, etc.
He measured it up with a walnut shell, etc.
He sent it to market on a hedgehog's back, etc.
He sold the lot for eighteenpence, etc.
And now the poor old man is dead, etc.

We buried him with his team of rats, heigh-ho, sing ivy,
And all his tools lay by his side, with a bunch of green holly and ivy.

A slightly different version of this song appears as "An Acre of Land" on the Come Write Me Down CD.