There Were Three Jovial Welshmen
This song is also called "Three Jolly Welshmen"...
There Were Three Jovial Welshmen
Nursery Rhyme
There were three jovial Welshmen,
As I have heard them say,
And they would go a-hunting
Upon St. David's day.
All the day they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But a ship a-sailing,
A-sailing with the wind.
One said it was a ship;
The other he said nay;
The third said it was a house,
With the chimney blown away.
And all the night they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But the moon a-gliding,
A-gliding with the wind.
One said it was the moon;
The other he said nay;
The third said it was a cheese,
And half o't cut away.
And all the day they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But a hedgehog in a bramble-bush,
And that they left behind.
The first said it was a hedgehog;
The second he said nay;
The third it was a pin-cushion,
And the pins stuck in wrong way.
And all the night they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But a hare in a turnip field,
And that they left behind.
The first said it was a hare;
The second he said nay;
The third said it was a calf,
And the cow had run away.
And all the day they hunted,
And nothing could they find
But an owl in a holly-tree,
And that they left behind.
One said it was an owl;
The other he said nay;
The third said 'twas an old man,
And his beard growing grey.
Thanks and Acknowledgements
The 1st illustration can be found in The Big Book of Nursery Rhymes (circa 1920) edited by Walter Jerrold (1865 - 1929) and illustrated by Charles Robinson (with some graphical editing of the above image by Lisa Yannucci). This song and the 2nd illustration can be found in The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang and illustrated by L. Leslie Brooke (1897).
