"Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron" is an English folk song about a man admiring the woman he loves as she goes through daily stages of washing and ironing clothes. It is classified as Roud number 869.[1] The earliest date in the Vaughan Williams catalogue is 1904, as collected in Somerset and arranged by Cecil Sharp. A later entry for 1908 gives the source as Jane Gulliford from Somerset. The Fresno State University gives a slightly different title, "Driving Away at the Smoothing Iron", with a date of 1909.[2]
'Twas on a [Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday ] morning
When I beheld my darling:
She looked so neat and charming
In every high degree;
She looked so neat and nimble, O,
[A-washing | A-hanging | A-starching | A-ironing | A-folding | A-airing | A-wearing ] of her linen, O,
Refrain
Dashing away with the smoothing iron,
Dashing away with the smoothing iron,
She stole my heart away.[3]
The musical comedy duo Flanders and Swann quoted the first 7/8 syllables of each verse, verbatim and notewise, at the beginning of each verse of The Gas Man Cometh, the first track on At The Drop of Another Hat (1963).[4] [5]
The tune was used by the English composer John Rutter for the fourth movement of his Suite for Strings (1973) under the title Dashing Away.[6] [7]