John Bull Lives In England

DESCRIPTION: Shanty. "John Bull lives in England, Taffy lives in Wales. Sandy lives in Scotland where there is all the girls. Paddy lives in Ireland as ev'rebody knows. There never was a coward where the little shamrock grows."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1935 (Sternvall, _Sang under Segel_)
KEYWORDS: shanty worksong home
FOUND IN: Sweden Britain
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas, pp. 453-454, "John Bull" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #13694
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Paddy Magee's Dream" (theme of national comparison)
NOTES [67 words]: The Swedish shanty book Sang under Segel had the only previous printed version of this, but Hugill-ShantiesFromTheSevenSeas seems to think that it originated in England and migrated to Sweden. - SL
I think this is true at least of the words (though I don't know if they migrated to Sweden). Steve Roud collected a version of the text, and there are rather similar nursery rhymes floating about. - RBW
File: Hugi452

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