A song from Sussex and one from the repertoire of the wonderful and everlasting Copper Family. Each time that I sing this it brings up images of Fairlight Cove, near to Hastings, where this sad story is alleged to have happened. I do have memories of Fairlight Cove as my mother would take my sister and myself as young children on holiday there and at that time we were unaware of this tragic event.
Martyn
The Constant Lovers Traditional
Now as I was a walking down by the seashore
Where the wind it did whistle and the waves they did roar
There I heard a fair maid make a terrible sound
Like the wind and the waves that did echo around
CHORUS
Crying OH OH my love is gone he’s the youth I adore
He’s gone and I never shall see him no more.
She’d a voice like a nightingale skin like a dove
And the song that she sang it was all about love
When I asked her to marry me marry me please
And the answer she gave my love’s drowned in the sea.
CHORUS
I said I had gold and I’d silver beside
On a coach and six horses with me she could ride
She said I’ll not marry nor yet prove a wife
I’ll be constant and true all the days I have life.
CHORUS
Then she flung her arms wide and she took a great leap
From the cliffs that were high to the billows so deep
Saying the rocks of the ocean shall be my death bed
And the shrimps of the sea shall swim over my head.
CHORUS
And now every night at six bells they appear
When the moon if is shining and stars they are clear
These two constant lovers in each others arms
Rolling over and over in each others charms
CHORUS.