Village Music - Anon -
The village names of England
Are like a chime of bells;
All round this little verdant land
Their magic music swells.
Southward where Hampshire's rolling downs
That pleasant county span
Are Saint Mary Bourne and Appleshaw
And little Abbots Ann
And where the Cotswold's glowing stone
Cries shame on bricks and mortar,
Moreton-in-Marsh, Stow-on-the- Wold
And Bourton-on-the-Water.
And in fox-hunting Leicestershire
The names are ringing still,
With Carlton Curlieu, Woodhouse Eaves
And Breedon-on-the-Hill.
There all 'The Langtons' in the shire
Together loosely packed,
And Liddington and Loddington
As if the chime was cracked.
Where the rich fields of Lincolnshire
Spread out beneath the sky
See Boothby Pagnell, Threckington
And Melby-in-the-Rye.
From every county endlessly
Their music swells the chime,
May they ring in English ears
Until the end of time.