Highwayman outwitted, The

The Highwayman Outwitted Roud 2638

Noted by Frank Kidson from Mrs. Kate Thompson of Knaresborough, Yorkshire.

1. It's of a rich farmer in Cheshire,
   To the market his daughter would go,
   Not thinking that any would harm her,
   She'd often been that way before.
   
   
2. She was met by a rusty highwayman,
   Who caused the young damsel to stand.
   "Your money and clothes now deliver
   Or else your sweet life is at hand."
   
   
3. He stripped this fair damsel stark naked,
   And gave her his bridle to hold,
   And there she stood shivering and shaking,
   Near starved unto death with the cold.
   
   
4. She put her left foot in the stirrup,
   And mounted his horse like a man;
   Over hedges and ditches she galloped,
   Crying, "Catch me, bold rogue, if you can."
   
   
5. The bold rogue he soon followed after,
   Which caused him to puff and to blow.
   Thank God that he never did catch her,
   Till she came to her own father's door.
   
   
6. "Oh daughter! dear daughter! what's happened?"
   "Oh father! to you I will tell;
   I was met by a rusty highwayman,
   Thank God! he has done me no harm."
   
   
7. "Put the grey mare in the stable,
   And spread the white sheet on the floor."
   She stood there and counted the money,
   She counted five thousand and more.

Journal of the Folk Song Society, vol.I, issue 5, 1904