"Bushes and Briars" is an English folksong (Roud 1027). A phonograph recording was supposedly made in 1904 of Mrs Humphreys of

Ingrave Ingrave is a village and former civil parish in the Brentwood in Essex, England. It is situated on and around the A128 road, 2 miles (3.2 km) southeast of the town of Brentwood. Together with the adjoining village of Herongate, it now form ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

Lucy Broadwood Lucy Etheldred Broadwood (9 August 1858 – 22 August 1929) was an English folksong collector and researcher, and great-granddaughter of John Broadwood, founder of the piano manufacturers Broadwood and Sons. As one of the founder members of the Fo ...

and

Ralph Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

, although the version available in the

British Library Sound Archive The British Library Sound Archive, formerly the British Institute of Recorded Sound; also known as the National Sound Archive (NSA), in London, England is among the largest collections of recorded sound in the world, including music, spoken word a ...

is more likely to be of Broadwood herself. The recording of Mrs Humphreys was included in 1998 on the EFDSS anthology "A Century of Song".

Vaughan Williams Ralph Vaughan Williams, (; 12 October 1872– 26 August 1958) was an English composer. His works include operas, ballets, chamber music, secular and religious vocal pieces and orchestral compositions including nine symphonies, written over ...

published an arrangement in 1908. A version collected at Piddlehinton, Dorset, in 1905 was printed in James Reeves's ''The Everlasting Circle'', 1960. The song was included in Barry Skinner's 1978 album ''Bushes & Briars'' (Fellside FE011).Barry Skinner
Mainly Norfolk

Recordings

Folksongs (Alfred Deller album) ''Folksongs'' is a 1972 album by the countertenor Alfred Deller with his son Mark Deller and lutenist Desmond Dupré.The Grove Book of Opera Singers 2008 p115 "often accompanied by the lutenist Desmond Dupré. In addition to actual folksongs it inc ...

References

Year of song unknown Songwriter unknown {{1900s-song-stub