Gordon Bok - These Dry Stone Walls Chords

[Intro]
Em


[Verse 1]
                         G
These miles of dry stone walls
     C                       D                    Em
That hold, in ploughed brown fields, these kingly halls
                         G        C
The dead of centuries in hills of sand
                Bm
The stones that bind them
    Am       D                Em
Are proud as what lies behind them
                  G        C               Am    B7   Em
And varied as the counties in this curious land


[Verse 2]
                   G
In Cumberland they built them
   C                 D         Em
On hills that surely must have killed them
                      G               C
Through broom and juniper and stunted ling
                  Bm
Two thousand feet over
     Am        D        Em
With just a tarpaulin cover
                 G                 C              Am      B7   Em
They crouched in wind and rain and waited for the spring


[Verse 3]
                 G
In Aberdeenshire valley
    C                D    Em
The fields were only open quarry
                                G       C
The stones were gathered up and made to stand
               Bm
But with every ploughing
      Am           D                  Em
You'd think it was stones they'd been sowing
               G                C          Am     B7   Em
The walls grew sadder here than any in the land


[Verse 4]
                   G
The Irish built in courses
          C          D       Em
Of single stones the size of horses
                             G       C
Of glacial boulders, without edge or face
                 Bm
But if you could view them
 Am        D            Em
Above, the sun lighting through them
                G                   C              Am     B7   Em
You'd swear the hills were edged in broken granite rays


[Verse 5]
                     G
When Pict and Viking took
      C               D           Em
Stone pages from some prehistoric book
                        G      C
A sandy flagstone under Orkney hills
                  Bm
Hailing there the while
    Am           D      Em
And left history in the islands
             G               C               Am     B7   Em
This is what water, wind and time and toil reveal


[Verse 6]
                 G
From Yorkshire's limestone hills
        C                 D        Em
Through Derbyshire to the coast of Wales
                               G     C
From Shetland's salty rocks to Devon lane
                 Bm
Just look and discover
    Am         D                 Em
Two walls that lean against each other
             G           C                   Am    B7   Em
You'll never see them in quite the same way again


[Verse 7]
                         G
These miles of dry stone walls
     C                       D                    Em
That hold, in ploughed brown fields, these kingly halls
                         G        C
The dead of centuries in hills of sand
                Bm
The stones that bind them
    Am       D                Em
Are proud as what lies behind them
                  G        C               Am    B7   Em
And varied as the counties in this curious land