The Lincolnshire Poacher

In 1857 it was written; "This very old ditty has been transformed into the dialects of Somersetshire, Northumberland and Leicestershire, but it properly belongs to Lincolnshire.

[citation needed] Anglo-Catholic congregations in the Anglican communion sometimes use the tune as a setting for a hymn sung in procession that begins, "The Happy Birds Te Deum Sing, 'Tis Mary's Month of May.

[7] Variations on this theme continued until early 2006, and today the station still uses a version with a less pronounced melody[clarification needed] from the folk song.

The melody is used in Harold Baum's "The Glyoxylate Cycle" in The Biochemists' Songbook, and in the 1950 novelty song "The Thing", sung by Phil Harris, which was #1 in US charts in 1950.

[8] The melody was sung in the 1940 film Tom Brown's School Days by the Rugby students and is the theme song of the movie.

As is usual with folk songs, the lyrics differ slightly between sources, but the following are typical:[1][2] When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire, I serv'd my master truly, for nearly seven odd year, Till I took up to poaching, as you shall quickly hear.

As me and my companions were setting up a snare, The gamekeeper was watching us – for him we did not care, For we can wrestle and fight, my boys, and jump o'er anywhere.