If It Wasn't For The 'ouses In Between.

Seq - Dr. J.Pitt-Payne. Kar - Bunty Pritchard Jones. Sept 2000.

If you saw my little backyard,
"Wot a pretty spot!" you'd cry.
It's a picture on a sunny summer day;

Wiv the turnip tops and cabbages
wot peop'e doesn't buy.
I makes it on a Sunday look all gay.

The neighbours finks I grows 'em
and you'd fancy you're in Kent,
or at Epsom if you gaze into the mews.

It's a wonder as the landlord
doesn't want to raise the rent,
because we've got such nobby distant views.

Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden,
and Chingford in the eastward could be seen;

wiv a ladder and some glasses,
you could see the 'Ackney Marshes,
if it wasn't for the 'ouses in between.

We're as countrified as can be
wiv a clothes prop for a tree,
the tubstool makes a rustic little style;

Ev'ry time the blooming clock strikes
a cuckoo sings to me,
and I've painted up "To Leather Lane a mile."

Wiv tomatoes and wiv radishes
wot 'adn't any sale,
the backyard looks a puffick mass o' bloom;

and I've made a little beehive
wiv some beetles in a pail,
and a pitchfork wiv the handle of a broom.

Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden,
An' Rye 'Ouse from the cock loft could be seen;

where the chickweed man undresses,
to bathe 'mong the water cresses,
it if wasn't for the 'ouses in between.

There's the bunny shares his egg box
wiv the cross~eyed cock and hen,
though they 'as got the pip and him the morf;

In a dog's 'ouse on the line post
there was pigeons nine or ten,
till someone took a brick and knock'd it off.

The dustcart, tho' it seldom comes,
is just like 'arvest 'ome
and we mean to rig a dairy up some 'ow,

put the donkey in the wash~house,
wiv some imitation 'orns,
for we're teaching 'im to moo just like a kah.

Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden,
And 'Endon to the westward could be seen;

and by clinging to the chimbley,
you could see across to Wembley,
if it wasn't for the 'ouses in between.

Though the gas works isn't wilets,
they improve the rural scene,
for mountains they would very nicely pass;

There's the mushrooms in the dust~hole,
with the cowcumbers so green,
it only wants a bit o' 'ot'ouse glass.

I wears this milkman's night shirt,
and I sits outside all day,

like the plough~boy cove,
what's mizzled o'er the Lea;

And when I goes indoors at night,
they dunno what I say,
'cause my language gets as yokel as can be.

Oh! it really is a wery pretty garden,
And soap~works from the 'ouse tops could be seen;

If I got a rope and pulley,
I'd enjoy the breeze more fully,
if it wasn't for the 'ouses in between.

Soft karaoke
Words
lyric
treble clef
bass clef
It It Wasn't For The 'ouses in Between
1899  (or, The Cockney's Garden)
sung by Mr. Gus Elen
Lyrics by Edgar Bateman
Composed by Geo. Le Brunn
Copyright in the USA by Francis, Day and Hunter Lrd.
MIDI
Doug Grierson - Research
Sequenced by Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK
Karaoke by
Bunty Pritchard Jones UK
If It Wasn't for the 'ouses in between 1899 seq Dr. Pitt-Payne in London UK 17 Sept 2000

sn't For The 'ouses in between 1899 sung by Mr. Gus Elen