The Rufford Park Poachers

A buck or doe, believe it so
A pheasant or a 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 forty gallant poachers
They were in distress
They'd often been attacked when
Their number, it was less

Among the gorse to settle scores
Those forty 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
So no man there again would dare
Defy the rich man's laws

Upon the ground with mortal wound
Head keeper Roberts lay
He never will rise up until
The final judgment day

Of all that band who made a stand
To set a net or snare
The four men brought before the court
Were tried for murder there

The Judge he said, "For Robert's death
Transported you must be
To serve a term of forty years
In convict slavery"

So poacher bold, your tale is told
Keep up your gallant heart
And think about those poachers bold
That night in Rufford Park