Daisy Roots

A song about a pair of boots ("daisy roots" as my grandfather John Cawdery would have called them in his Cockney rhyming slang). But this is not just about his boots but the boots - and roots - of many of my ancestors and the roads they trod.

Daisy Roots

When these old boots had soles, my boys,

They walked the country round

From Cornwall to Northumberland

And on the Scottish ground

Just like some wayward vagabond 

Or like some Irish rover

They tramped about in search of work

From Liverpool to Dover.*

And they don't make 'em like that any more.

When these old boots had soles, my boys,

They never thought to shirk

Rose early every morning, boys, 

And they tramped their way to work

They carted coal round London town

And navvied on the line**

They walked the ground behind the plough

And down the dark coal mine.

And they don't make 'em like that any more.

When these old boots had soles, my boys,

They marched to foreign lands

With brothers, fathers, uncles

And a mil-i-tary band

The drums were beat so loudly

And the bugles they were blown

Till one rainy April morning

They came limping home alone

And they don't make 'em like that any more.

When these old boots had soles, my boys,

They danced the whole night through

On flagstone floors in many a pub

They beat a fine tattoo

If someone played the fiddle, boys,

These boots would never rest

To a good old Yarmouth hornpipe tune

They stepped it with the best.

But they don't make 'em like that any more.

Now these old boots have holes, my boys,

The leather's worn right through,

The missus says to chuck 'em out

But that I'll never do

They walked a land I'll never know

'cos these old boots ain't mine

No, these are granddad's "daisy roots"

And he's been gone some time.

And they don't make 'em like that any more.

* the last two lines of this verse are lifted directly from an old comic song my mother sings called Paddy And The Rope (And they don't write 'em like that any more.) 

** the men who built the railways and canals in England were known as Navvies or Navigators.

Take care.