old Wycombe caning song

THE CANING GIRL.

'Twas down in mandy street
a girl I chanced to meet
she had deep blue eyes and golden hair
her smile was warm and sweet.
She blushed and turned away from me
but still I did not care
and underneath her arm she held
a small bundle of cane.
She fairly won my heart
though I'd never see her again
the blue eyed girl with her hair in curl
I met with a bundle of cane.

Then we agreed to meet again
on top of Tom Burl's hill
to talk of happy moments past
and sweet the memory still.
We talked of happy days in store
and it made a sudden stop.
Would you condescend to marry a girl
who works in a caning shop?

So come all you lads take my advice
when to Wycombe town you go.
Don't talk to pretty caning girls
or else they'll serve you so.
They'll steal away your hearts my boys
and promise to be true
then with some bloody potisher
away from you they'll go.

This song was collected by L. J. Mayes while talking to cane and rush workers in the 1960s but is thought to be much older, It can be found
in Ken Piper's book To pass the Music on..... Songs and Rhymes from Buckinghamshire.