The Smuggler's Song - Chords, Lyrics and Origins
Origins
A setting to music of a Rudyard Kipling poem. It's from a collection of poems called 'Puck of Pook's Hill'. Kipling lived in my home county of Sussex and the poem, and therefore the song, is reputedly about the Sussex Smuggling trade. My version owes a lot to Carl Hogsden and Jane Threlfall's version, which you will find on their album 'Who?'
Click here to download Smuggler's Song, The from the iTunes Store.
Click here to listen to Smuggler's Song, The in Spotify.
Chords
Em
Five and twenty ponies,
A2 Em
Trotting through the dark,
Em
Brandy for the parson
A2 Em
And baccie for the clerk,
D G
Laces for the ladies
C D
And letters for the spy,
Em
Now watch the wall my darling
A2 Em
As the gentlemen go by.
Lyrics
Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark,
Brandy for the parson and bacchy for the clerk,
Laces for the ladies and letters for the spie,
Now watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by.
If you wake at midnight to the sound of horses' feet,
Don't go drawin' back the blinds nor lookin' in the street.
Them that asks no questions, isn't told a lie.
Now watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by.
Runnin' through the woodlands you might chance to find
Little barrels roped and tied all full of brandywine,
Well don't you shout to come and look nor use 'em for your play,
Just push the brushwood back again and they'll be gone next day.
If you see a stable door settin' open wide,
And if you see a tired horse a lying down inside ,
And if your mother mends a coat that's cut about and torn,
And if the linin's wet and warm well don't you ask no more.
Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark,
Brandy for the parson and bacchy for the clerk,
Laces for the ladies and letters for the spy,
Now watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by.
Knocks and footsteps 'round the house, whistles after dark,
You've no call for runnin' out until the house dogs bark,
For Trusty's here and Finch is here and see how dumb they lie,
They don't fret to follow when the gentlemen go by.
If you see the king's men dressed in blue and red,
Well you be careful what you say and mindful what is said,
And if they call you pretty maid and chuck you 'neath your chin,
Well don't you tell where no one is, nor yet where no one's been.
Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark,
Brandy for the parson and bacchy for the clerk,
Laces for the ladies and letters for the spie,
Now watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by.
If you do as you've been told, likely there's a chance
That you'll be give a dainty doll that's all the way from France,
With a cap of Alyintsin's and a velvet hood,
A present from the gentlemen along with being good.
Five and twenty ponies trotting through the dark,
Brandy for the parson and bacchy for the clerk,
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie,
And watch the wall my darling while the gentlemen go by.