I'm a bold English navvy that fought on the line,
The first place I met was Newcastle on Tyne,
I being tired, sick and weary from working all day,
To a cot down by the hillside I'm making my way.
O I first had me supper and then had a shave
For courtin' this fair maid I highly prepared
Th'ould stars in the sky as the moon it shone down
And I hit for the road with my navvy boots on.
I knocked on my love's window, my knock she did know
And out of her slumber she woken so slow
I knocked there again and she said is that John?
And I quickly replied: With my navvy boots on.
O she opened the window and then let me in
'Twas into her bedroom she landed me then
Th'ould night being cold and the blankets rolled on
And I slept there all night with me navvy boots on
O then early next morning at the dawn of the day
Said I to my true love: it's time to go away
Sleep down, sleep down, you know you've done wrong
For to sleep there all night with your navvy boots on.
O he bent down his head with a laugh and a smile
Saying: What could I do, love, in that little while?
And I know if I done it, I done it in fun
And I'll do it again with my navvy boots on.
Oh then six months being over and seven at least
When this pretty fair maid got stout round the waist
For eight months being over when nine comes along
And she handed him a young son with his navvy boots on
O come all you pretty fair maids take a warning, she said
Don't ever leave a navvy go into your bed
For when he'll get warm and think upon yon
Sure, he'll jump on your bones with his navvy boots on.