Folk Songs

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I Love a Shilling

A shilling from the Museum's Collections.

A shilling from the Museum's Collections.

I love a shilling as I love my life;
A penny to spend, a penny to swagger
And ten to take home to my little Gwenno.

I love ten pennies as I love my life:
A penny to spend, a penny to swagger
And eight to take home to my little Gwenno.

Oh! lovely! eight! Oh! fine! eight!

(And on through 'eight', 'six' and 'a groatt' until the following.)

Oh! lovely! two! Oh! fine! two!

I love a shilling as I love my life;
A penny to spend, a penny to swagger
And nothing to take home to my little Gwenno.

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I Love a Shilling

SFNHM Tape 426. Collected October 1961 from Rev. H. Cadnant Griffiths (minister, b. 1896), Abergele, Denbighshire.

Notes

A version of 'I've Got Sixpence' – there are also others in Welsh. The text given above runs fairly closely parallel to that of '0 dear twelve–pence' as quoted in ODNR, 355, from Rimbault's 1846 collection of nursery rhymes.

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Hector Williams (ballad singer)