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lyrics
Rufford Park Poachers [traditional, fourteen syllables in each line]
A buck or doe, believe it so, the pheasant and the hare
were set on Earth for everyone, quite equally to share.
So, poacher bold, as I unfold, keep up your gallant heart,
and think about those poachers bold, that night in Rufford Park.
They say that fourteen gallant poachers, they were in distress—
they’d often been attackéd when, their number, it was less.
Among the gorse, to settle scores, these fourteen gathered stones,
to make a fight for poor men’s rights, and break the keepers’ bones.
The keepers went with flails against the poachers and their cause,
to see that none again would dare defy the rich man’s laws.
The keepers, they began the fray with stones and with their flails,
but when the poachers started, why, they quickly turned their tails.
Upon the ground, with mortal wound, Head Keeper, Roberts, lay;
he never will rise up until the final Judgement Day.
Of all the band who made a stand to set a net or snare,
the man they brought before the court was tried for murder there.
The Judge, he said, “For Roberts’ death, transported you must be,
to serve a term of fourteen years in convict slavery”.
So, poacher bold, my tale is told, keep up your gallant heart,
and think about those poachers bold, that night in Rufford Park.
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