Dear Kate

From Mrs Oliver

Collected by Francis Collinson, Bethersden

Francis Collinson Collection COL/2/7

Roud 21868

This is a fragment of a song usually known as ‘Hal the Woodman’, which appeared on nineteenth century broadsides by printers including Catnach, Fortey, Harkness and Pitts – see for example this broadsheet from the Frank Kidson collection https://archives.vwml.org/records/FK/10/126/3.

According to the Monthly Supplement to the Musical Library, August 1834, the words were written by dramatist William Pearce, the music by singer, musician and composer Thomas Linley (1733-1795).

The full words are:

1. Stay, traveller, tarry here to-night,
   The rain yet beats, the wind is loud;
   The moon, too, has withdrawn her light,
   And gone to sleep behind a cloud.
2. ‘Tis seven long miles across the moor,
   And should you chance to go astray,
   You’ll meet, I fear, no friendly door,
   Nor soul to tell the ready way.
3. Come, dearest Kate, our meal prepare,
   This stranger shall partake our best,
   A cake and rasher be his fare,
   With ale that makes the weary blest.
4. Approach the hearth, there take a place,
   And till the hour of rest draws nigh,
   Of Robin Hood and Chevy-Chace.
   We’ll sing, then to our pallets hie.
5. Had I the means, I’d use you well;
   ‘Tis little that I have to boast:
   Yet should you of this cottage tell,
   Say Hal the Woodman was your host.

My thanks to Steve Gardham who identified this as the source of Kate Oliver’s words.