The Farmer's Servant

Those who don't know him imagine the East Anglian farm-hand to be deferential, even servile. Nothing is further from the truth. He is, as the song says, inclined to mind his master's business "as servants always done". But under that innocent phrase lies a sly meaning that many a master has never appreciated until it was too late. In melody, the song is the cousin of the well-know Lincolnshire Poacher. In shape, it recalls the commercial hit of a year or two back, The Thing. It is a song that evokes a nudge, a wink and a quickly stifled guffaw, if the squire is with his friends in the adjacent saloon bar.