Ramble Away - All the Fun of the Fair

Handed Down

Put on your Sunday best, we're going to the fair!
A handsome young man, a moonlight tryst and a young woman is left to bear the consequences. It's an age old tale, but why did it become so popular in the early 19th Century? We might have the answer.
We're also looking more widely at English fairs through the ages; the fun, strange and sometimes scandalous things that happen there, and the songs people sing about them.
This episode features bit of mild swearing thanks to our cheeky friend Samuel Pepys.
Music
Brimbledon Fair is from Folk Songs From Somerset by Cecil Sharp
Selby Fair words are from the Bodleian Library Ballad Index, but I made the tune up
The Ewan MacColl version of Bartholomew Fair can be found here
The full words of Jockey to the Fair can be found at the Bodleian Library here
The tune behind the Thomas Hardy extract is Brigg Fair
The full version of Ramble Away is the one I learned from Shirley Collins' recorded version
You can find the full lyrics of Answer to Young Ramble Away (if you really want to!) here and the tune is a Derrydown Fair variant that I found on Mudcat.
References
There are some great discussions about Ramble Away on the Mudcat Cafe, and the Mainly Norfolk website has a very informative summary about the song.
The episode features extracts from A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain 1724-1727 by Daniel Defoe (which also features on the Mainly Norfolk website), from the Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy and the diaries of Samuel Pepys.
Vic Gammon (1982) Song, Sex and Society in England 1600-1850 Folk Music Journal 4 (3) 208-245 https://www.jstor.org/stable/4522105