This is a song I believe Cliff learned from the singing of the Watersons.  Two of the verses below are from their album “For Pence and Spicy Ale” but Cliff will sometimes vary the lyrics to his own taste.  Recently I have been informed that the song was composed by a Harry Linn in the 1870s.

Jos. Morneault

CHORUS:
I like to rise when the sun she rises,
early in the morning
And I like to hear them small birds singing,
Merrily upon their layland
And hurrah for the life of a country boy,
And to ramble in the new mown hay.

In spring we sow at the harvest mow
And that is how the seasons round they go
but of all the times, if choose I may,
I’d be rambling through the new mown hay.      CHORUS:

In summer when the sun is hot
We sing, and we dance, and we drink a lot
We spend all night in sport and play
And go rambling in the new mown hay              CHORUS:

In autumn when the oak trees turn
We gather all the wood that’s fit to burn
We cut and stash and stow away
And go rambling in the new mown hay              CHORUS:

In winter when the sky’s gray
we hedge and ditch our times away,
but in the summer when the sun shines gay,
We go ramblin’ through the new mown hay.         CHORUS:

Oh Nancy is me darling gay
And she blooms like the flowers every day
But I love her best in the month of May
When we’re rambling through the new mown hay       CHORUS 2x: