The Ash Grove

The harper Edward Jones first printed the air in Wales in his Bardic Museum (1802) as "Llwyn Onn," named for a family house near Wrexham. Niel and Nathaniel Gow had already printed it in Scotland around 1800 as "Sir Watkin William Wynn," after a line of Welsh baronets. A similar air appears in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera of 1728, so the tune may be older still.

The Welsh words tell of a sailor's love for Gwen of Llwyn, who dies before the song ends. Thomas Oliphant's English words, published in 1862 in John Thomas's Welsh Melodies, are the ones usually sung, and the tune also carries the hymn "Let All Things Now Living." Contra and session players use it as a waltz.