The Stamford Bullards
The Stamford Waits are mentioned as playing this song during the Stamford Bull Run – a regular event from the 14th to the 19th centuries.
I.
Come, all you bonny boys
Who love to bait the bonny bull,
Who take delight in noise,
And you shall have your belly-full.
On Stamford’s Town Bull running day,
We’ll show you such right gallant play,
You never saw the like, you’ll say,
As you have seen at Stamford.
II.
Earl Warren was the man
That first began this gallant sport;
In the castle he did stand,
And saw the bonny bulls that fought;
The butchers with their bull-dogs came,
These sturdy stubborn bulls to tame,
But more with madness did inflame,
Enrag’d they ran through Stamford.
III.
Delighted with the sport,
The meadows there he freely gave,
Where these bonny bulls had fought,
The butchers now to hold and have;
By Charter they are strictly bound,
That every year a bull be found:
Come daub your face you dirty clown,
And stump away to Stamford.
IV.
Come, take him by the tail boys,-
Bridge, bridge him if you can;
Prog him with a nail boys;
Never let him quiet stand:
Through every street and lane in town
We’ll chevy chase him up and down;
You sturdy strawyards ten miles round,
Come stump away to Stamford.
V.
Bring with you a prog stick,-
Boldly mount then on his back:
Bring with you a dog, Dick,
Who will also help to bark.
This is the rebel’s riot feast,
Humanity must be debas’d
And every man must do his best
To bait the bull in Stamford.