The verses

Last updated: 8 July 2005

The verses are sung at the Gathering after tea, and at other times when someone will start them. They are the song of the day. Mrs Hedley has them by heart, and we are glad to print them here for visitors who have asked after the words. They take a little time, which is part of their character. They are not in the leaflet.

Verses have been added as the years have gone. We print them as they are sung. There is no older paper at the centre that we would call complete, and we would not wish to leave one out.

As sung

1.
Come down to the green when the morning is fair
The houses stand round and the woods stand there
The man in the leaf looks aside in the stone
He has looked so long he is almost our own

2.
The pit put a village beside the old burn
The railway came after, the waggonway in turn
The men went below and the coal went away
The woods have the keeping of that working day

3.
The oak and the alder hold on to the burn
The larch takes the hill in its season and turn
The rides lie as quiet as anyone needs
And the sound of the village is the sound of the trees

4.
He walked from the porch in the cool of the day
He came to the church by the gravel way
He stood by the face that is set in the leaf
And he left it as found, and went on his way

5.
The garden is small and the garden is kept
The names of the pit and the wars are set
It is a place to stand as the trees come near
And the path turns with it, year upon year

6.
He came to a stile and he looked the way back
The green was still there at the end of the track
He thought of the hall and the cloth on the table
And he went on walking as long as he was able

7.
The burn at the crossing is wet after rain
The moss on the stones will be moss there again
A face in the bark can be found if you will
It has been there a long time, and it is there still

8.
The bench on the green is the waiting, they say
The kiosk stands empty, the box has its day
There is no shop now and no bell in the street
The board on the wall is the thing you will meet

9.
The bus is a kindness on Tuesday at ten
Stand at the hall, not the green, and then
Give it a minute, it comes as it can
The valley is long for a motor and man

10.
Come down to the green when the morning is fair
The houses stand round and the woods stand there
The man in the leaf looks aside in the stone
He has looked so long he is almost our own

11.
Take what you brought and take nothing away
The hall has the bins at the end of the day
The hawthorn is handsome along the old lane
It was never a basket and won’t be again

12.
He counted the trees as he came through the ride
He counted them twice, coming on, going wide
He counted them home in the last of the light
And the number he got was the number that’s right

13.
They sang it at tea and they sang it again
They sang it in sunlight, they sang it in rain
The last is the last until someone finds more
And someone will, as they have done before

They are not always all sung. On a shorter afternoon the first five will do, and they have done. At the Gathering they are sung through, and that is the pleasure of it. Visitors are welcome to join where they know the words. We do not teach them from the desk; the hall is the place, and tea is the time.