How many miles to Pode Hole Farm?
Come, tell me one o' you men!'
'How many miles to Pode Hole Farm?
Why, you keeps right over the fen -
And when you hear the ganner shout,
And when you hear the ganner shout,
It'll be a good mile then!'
The sky was never so grey before,
The earth was never so flat,
Men were never so scarce before,
And wages never so fat;
And I was never so glad before,
As I came over the fen:
Where I could hear the ganner shout,
A mile away without a doubt,
As he led his waddling wives about,
Down field, and back agen!
And when I lived at Pode Hole Farm'
And wrought with Lincoln men,
Among the cattle at Pode Hole Farm'
Or ploughing on Steeping Fen,
Where I could hear the ganner shout,
And cursed him for a noisy lout -
It was a good time then!
The sky was never so blue before,
The grass was never so green,
Work was never so scarce before,
And times were never so lean:
And I was never so sad before
As I went over the fen;
As when I turned me round about'
To hear once more the ganner shout -
And knew in my heart, without a doubt,
I never should agen.
NOTES: The farm house of Pode Hole Farm was built in 1860 on the Duke of Bedford Estate. Pode Hole is still a working farm, lying just outside the village of Thorney on the edge of the Fens, near Peterborough. Ganners are ganders, male geese.