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 judgement 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