The Ballad of Langley Vale

There’s a ghost of a horse in Langley Vale,
You can hear him galloping by,
There’s a ghost of a horse in Langley Vale,
And this is the reason why.

My story is told of long ago,
Of a highwaymen seen on the Langley Road,
Many a coach was lightened of gold,
Many a shot rang out in the cold.

Most robbers were blaggards and bastards to boot,
Their trip to the gallows a torturous route,
They took every trinket from young and from old
This highwayman cared only for purses of gold.

He wasn’t your average highway scum
He didn’t behave like a man on the run
He never frequent the taverns in town,
To boast of his deeds and the men he’d shot down.

His horse was the colour of molten gold,
His limbs were fine and his eye was bold,
For he was a racehorse noble and fine,
His master a horseman tall and slim.

They say on a night when the air was still,
You could hear his sweet voice fill,
The woodlands with song as he rides his course,
He sings for the love of his chestnut horse.

He gelded the wealthy and gifted the poor,
He wrote his own rules, he made his own law,
He gave all he stole to the weak and the lame,
No one betrayed him they knew not his name.

One darkening eve with a storm rolling by,
He galloped his horse with his musket held high,
He halted a coach by crossing its path,
“Your gold or your lives.” They heard him laugh.

But an Earl on the coach with his musket primed,
To the highwayman’s heart his bullet found,
With a crack of gunfire he cut him down,
And from his fine horse he plunged to the ground.

Away galloped his terrified horse,
As there on the highway he breathed his last,
When they drew off the mask a terrible truth
For he was a woman in her full youth.

The Earl knelt beside her and raised up her face,
Ashen and lifeless, but still full of grace,
With a moan and a cry of terrible pain,
His daughter was dead and he was to blame.

The horse returned in the dark of the night,
He stood at the place where his mistress had died,
No one could catch him however they tried,
And he’s galloping still on the Langley Vale ride.

There’s a ghost of a horse in Langley Vale,
You can still hear him galloping by,
There’s a ghost of a horse in Langley Vale,
Now you all know the reason why.

Caroline Baldock © 2010