Down In Yon Forest (Single Version) by Lily Bentley

(Available now on Bandcamp! https://lilybentley.bandcamp.com/track/down-in-yon-forest-single )

This English carol has been around for somewhere in the region of five hundred years. It's believed that the words make reference to the legend of the Holy Grail.

It is perhaps one of the oddest carols to survive into today's folk repertoire, but also one of the most intimate. More than any other carol, it feels to me like a voice reaching across time.

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Vocals: Lily Bentley
Everything Else: Gerry Diver

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Down in yon forest there stands a hall
The bells of paradise, I heard them ring
It’s covered all over with purple and pall
And I love my Lord Jesus, above anything

And in that hall there stands a bed
The bells of paradise, I heard them ring
Scarlet the coverlet over it spread
And I love my Lord Jesus, above anything

At the foot of that bed there grows a thorn
The bells of paradise, I heard them ring
It blooms, ere it blossoms the day he was born
And I love my Lord Jesus, above anything

And under that bed there runs a flood
The bells of paradise, I heard them ring
The half it runs water, the other runs blood
And I love my Lord Jesus, above anything

And over that hall the moon shines bright
The bells of paradise, I heard them ring
Denoting our saviour was born that night
And I love my Lord Jesus, above anything