(Verse
1)
Both old and young come listen all
Come listen all to me;
There’s jovial cheer at Ald’ley hall
For high and low degree.
There’s bonney lads them lassies say
That talk is frank and free
They’ve come of age this very day,
And happy may they be.
Good luck and honour them be tide
To man’s estate upgrown,
Their mother’s joy, their father’s pride,
And lov’d by all they’re known!
(Verse
2)
Come listen all unto my song,
Ye quality that’s here,
And poor folk too, God bless sir John,
And all he loves most dear.
And you, fair lady, mistress vare
Of all his rich domain!
For God will hear the poor man’s prayer,
and pay you all again.
For many years, this noble
hall
We’ve had right cause to pray
From father’s estate to son may fall,
And Stanleys all be they.
(Verse
3)*
I’m but a ballad singer now.
Great folks look down on me;
But better hearts ha’nt high than low,
To bless old Alderly.
Right on for now for many a year,
As prosperous may it stand;
As well respected far and near,
As any hall its land.
Thro’ all ye land my blood can run
I’d better veins than theirs;
And when old folks be dead and done,
As good may be the heirs.
(Verse
4)**
Come join ye all there, in my song
Our hearts all wish ye the same
That health, and wealth, and life be long
To all the Stanley name.
And now we all must separate,
Such days to see no more,
Let many others celebrate,
As we have done before!
God bless them all both young and old
And all this merry set!
For many times it shall be told
A merrier never met.
*moved “thro’ all ye land”
stanza down to refrain section. **moved
“and now we all must separate” down to next stanza.
***Anne Lister’s Journal
Entry - 23 January 1824 (writing is what M said to Anne about the Ball at
Alderly Hall, including M’s description of the sequence of events surrounding
Charles’s reading a “ballad” he assumed to be written by M when in fact it was
Anne’s writing):
“M— hears it went off
very well. My notices for her friend, the bell-man, were useful. C—, fancying
the ballad for the occasion her own, ‘declared they were the best verses he had
ever read. By George, he would have one & sing it himself… he tells
everybody of what a capital song I wrote… I can’t help smiling to think how
prejudice carries us away. If I had told him they came from you, he would have
thrown them away as trash, & rather rejoiced in the circumstance that had
prevented their being sung.”
