1.
When I was bound apprentice,
In famous Lincolnshire,
Full well I served my master
For more then seven year,
Till I took up to poaching,
As you shall quickly hear;
Chorus:
O ’tis my delight on a shining night,
In the season of the year!
2.
As me and my companions
Were setting of a snare,
’Twas then we spied the gamekeeper –
For him we did not care;
For we can wrestle and fight, my boys,
And jump o’er anywhere;
Chorus
3.
As me and my companions
Were setting four or five,
And taking on ’em up again,
We caught a hare alive;
We took the hare alive, my boys,
And through the woods did steer;
Chorus
4.
I threw him on my shoulder,
And then we trudged home;
We took him to a neighbour’s house,
And sold him for a crown;
We sold him for a crown, my boys,
But I did not tell you where;
Chorus
5.
Success to every gentleman
That lives in Lincolnshire;
Success to every poacher
That wants to sell a hare;
Bad luck to every gamekeeper,
That will not sell his deer;
Chorus