THE MORAL.
O what a change we undergo
By fate's unfriendly touch;
When we're asham'd and laugh'd at too,
For what we've priz'd so much.
THE WIDOW'S LAMENT.
This ballad is founded on an event which took place in the latter part of the year 1848. A gamekeeper of the earl of Ripon went out one night about his usual business, and was found next morning, near one of the plantations on Hutton Moor, shot dead. A notorious poacher, who was seen in the neighbourhood on the day of the murder, was apprehended and tried at York assizes, but acquitted for want of evidence; he subsequently emigrated to America, where he died, and is said to have confessed that he was the murderer.
The cheerless day is closing fast,
The angry night-wind howls around,