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All Around My Hat

Name: All Around My Hat
Description: "All Around My Hat" originates from nineteenth-century England. An early 1820s version tells of a Cockney costermonger who pledges faithfulness to his fiancée after her sentencing to seven years' transportation to Australia for theft, planning to wear green willow sprigs in his hatband for a year an

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"All Around My Hat" originates from nineteenth-century England. An early 1820s version tells of a Cockney costermonger who pledges faithfulness to his fiancée after her sentencing to seven years' transportation to Australia for theft, planning to wear green willow sprigs in his hatband for a year and a day as a mourning symbol. Steeleye Span achieved fame with their rendition in 1975, which may have drawn from a traditional version previously performed by John Langstaff.

Lyrics ↗

What the lyrics are about

A man's vow of faithfulness and mourning for his fiancée who has been transported to Australia as punishment for theft, expressed through the symbolic wearing of green willow sprigs in his hatband.