Greet manuscripts

 The Greet manuscripts are a set of 21 tunes found, when working in his loft, by Peter Hill who was then living at Littleworth, Greet, near Winchcombe. They were entitled “a few favourite airs adapted for the German (ie transverse) flute”. Many are dance tunes.

Betsy Baker –
From noise and bustle far away,
Hard work my time employing,
Happily did I pass each day,
Content and health enjoying;
The birds did sing and so did I,
As I trudged over each acre,
I never knew what ’twas to sigh,
‘Till I saw Betsy Baker.

This is the first verse of an eponymous song sold on a ballad sheet, with ‘The Mountain Maid to her Bower has Hied’ by Thomas Willey, High Street Cheltenham, around 1835.

Notes by Paul Burgess