Wheely Down

Richard Thompson

She womanly lay like the lay of the land

The land around Wheely Down

And every curve was a high, high hill

To hang above the town

>From Holland they came to make their maps

And they had made her well

For the rivers danced all across the green

And the pine woods sweet did smell

As far as ever a man can see

It yields him more and more

And every house he washes it white

And he covers it all with straw

Except for the fool who makes him home

Upon a flooded ground

And still on the tide his glass to the eyes

That stare out of Wheely Down

All things must change within the earth

They move in and they lay

Ah, the ones will rot the miller's wheel

And the rats will eat the grain

And the armies of deliverance

Are run into the ground

And the kestrel turns in the empty skies

And high over Wheely Down