"The Husbandman and the Servingman", also known as "Singing the Travels" is an English Morris Dance tune in 2/4 time and G Major. The parts are played AB. "The Husbandman and the Servingman" is part of the medieval mummers play The Seven Champions of Christendom from Symondsbury near Bridport, Dorset and is a heated discussion about the merits or otherwise of being employed or independent. In Shakespeare's time most English villages had their local amateur acting companies, who on Christmas or Plough Monday performed traditional dramas in the streets or the halls of great houses. This custom has now almost died out. Peter Kennedy recorded a fragment of a revived but genuine version of this play in Symondsbury in February 1951. It has been included in the anthologies World Library of Folk and Primitive Music: England (1955) and Songs of Christmas / Songs of Ceremony (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 9 (1961/1970). It dates to 1665 or earlier. This was collected by the Hammond brothers in West Dorset, this time from William Miller at Wootton Fitzpaine near Charmouth. Farmer Miller had a splendid repertoire of mainly farming and drinking songs; this song can still be heard regularly in the Bridport area, sung by the Symondsbury Mummers as the last part of their Christmas play. Mr. Miller’s version, with its different tunes for the Servantman and the Husbandman, suggests that it may have been sung and acted by two singers. I have trouble making the words fit the tune but the tune, in both Major and Minor modes, is interesting. It appears in the Roud Index of Folk Song as #873. It was printed in Raven's English Country Dance Tunes (1984), Broadwood and Maitland,'s English County Songs (1893) and Williams' Folk songs of the Upper Thames (1923). It was recorded on English Customs and Traditions (1997) and June Tabor & Maddy Prior on Silly Sisters (1977).