p. 14
Alternate Title: 
God Bless the Master
First Line: 
God bless the Master of this house

Reference

Topic: 
Culture: 

About the Song

Print source: 
Oxford Book of Carols, Christmas Revels Songbook

This Engish carol appears to be a composite of 2 or 3 older carols perhaps by Lucy Broadwood. It first appeared in this variant in Lucy & John Broadwood's collection English Traditional Songs & Carols, pp. 80-3 in 1882 & also in their Sussex songs, 1890.

The Waterson Family sing it under the title "God Bless the Master of This House" using a slightly different tune than the Revels and Nowell Sing We Clear.

Ra lph Vaughn Williams' made an arrangement of the song as one of his Folk Songs of Four Seasons (as "God Bless the Master").