English Country Garden - Chords, Lyrics and Origins

Origins

Well known in the United Kingdom, English Country Gardens was originally a Morris tune (that is a tune usually played on the accordion or violin to accompany traditional English Morris dancing).  The tune was collected by Cecil Sharp, and has more or less entered the contemporary British national consciousness.  My daughter's school orchestra played an arrangement of it, for example.  A little bizarrely, it was a U.K. hit for the American singer Jimmie Rodgers (not the country singer of the same name who died in 1933) in 1962.

See this Mudcat thread for alternative lyrics.

Chords

Capo at 3rd Fret

G                 C         D         G                             C            D  G
How many gentle flowers grow in an English country garden?

G                C          D                  G                                       C                 D  G
I'll tell you now, of some that I know, and those I miss I hope you'll pardon.

G                           D                       G                              D
Daffodils, hearts-ease and flocks, meadow sweet and lilies, stocks,

G         A7               D           D7
Gentle lupins and tall hollyhocks,

            G                C                     D                     G                              C           D  G
Roses, fox-gloves, snowdrops,          forget-me-knots in an English country garden.

Lyrics

How many gentle flowers grow in an English country garden?
I'll tell you now, of some that I know, and those I miss I hope you'll pardon.
Daffodils, hearts-ease and flocks, meadow sweet and lilies, stocks,
Gentle lupins and tall hollyhocks,
Roses, fox-gloves, snowdrops, forget-me-knots in an English country garden.

How many insects find their home in an English country garden?
I'll tell you now of some that I know, and those I miss, I hope you'll pardon.
Dragonflies, moths and bees, spiders falling from the trees,
Butterflies sway in the mild gentle breeze.
There are hedgehogs that roam and little garden gnomes in an English country garden.

How many song-birds make their nest in an English country garden?
I'll tell you now of some that I know, and those I miss, I hope you'll pardon.
Babbling, coo-cooing doves, robins and the warbling thrush,
Blue birds, lark, finch and nightingale.
We all smile in the spring when the birds all start to sing in an English country garden.