Eynsham Poaching Song
Oxford Ramble track 7
Eynsham is a village about five miles to the northwest of Oxford, and this poaching song has plenty of local detail: Wytham Woods, Cassington Brook, Abingdon Gaol are all mentioned in the text.
See this Google map showing Eynsham, Cassington and Wytham Woods
The words were collected from Henry Leech, of Eynsham, by Alfred Williams, and published in his Folk Songs of the Upper Thames in 1923 (one of two versions included in the book). Williams did not collect the music for any of his songs; the tune now universally associated with the words actually comes from Buckinghamshire - it belongs to The Buckingham Poaching Song, collected by R.C. Puddefoot from George Paradine, of Ivinghoe, Bucks. Words and tune were put together in the 1960s by Dave and Toni Arthur, who had learned the tune from Wagg Puddefoot.