Travelling People

Ewan Maccoll

        This song was written by Ewan Maccoll about the efforts on the part of the British government to legislate the journeymen, tinkers and gypsies out of existence.

I'm a freeborn man of the travelling people,
Got no fixed abode, with nomads I am numbered.
Country lanes and byways were always my ways;
I never fancied being numbered.

Oh, we knew the woods and the resting places,
And the small birds sang when winter time was over. Then we'd pack our load and he on the road;
Those were good old times for the rover.
In the open ground you could stop and linger
For a week or two, for time was not your master;
Then away you'd jog with your horse and dog,
Nice and easy, no need to go faster.

Sometimes you'd meet all the other people
For the news or swapping family information;
At the country fair, we'd be meeting there,
All the people of the travelling nation.

All you freeborn men of the travelling people,
Every tinker, rolling stone, and gypsy rover,
Winds of change are blowing, old ways are going,
Your travelling days will soon be over.

Travelling People is recorded on the CD A Tune For November