On The River Dee

 I came around this morning singing "The Miller of Dee" to myself.

You know it?

Goes like this (to what I read is an old Welsh harp tune- which fits because the River Dee which flows through Chester- is on the Welsh borders,)

There was a jolly miller once
Lived on the River Dee.
He worked and sang from morn til night,
No lark more blithe than he.
And this the burden of his song
Forever used to be,
I care for nobody, no not I
If nobody cares for me."

I'm facing what could be emotionally demanding day's work at the Meeting House- and decided the Miller had been given me as a mantra- because he's so cheery and zen

I sang it to Ailz and she said she'd never heard it before.

I was astonished. I've known it since I was wee small child. Also it's folk and Ailz is a folkie.

I have memories of singing it in school. Like the Lincolnshire Poacher (message: "fuck the ruling class and their game laws) or "There is a Tavern in the Town" (message; "men are cheating bastards") it's one of the ditties we were taught (considered harmless because trad) that subverted a curriculum otherwise loaded with pious, paternalistic, legalistic crap.