"Robert Willance"

But here's the edge of the Whitcliffe Scar

Two hundred feet below-o

All tumbled over all through the air

Does horse and rider go-o

The poor mare came crashing down

And broken lay and dead-o

And Willance he fell by her side

His leg all tore and red-o

And as he lay in the shivering damp

Oh Willance he did sigh-o

"If no-one finds me here to night

Then surely I may die-o"

And as he felt of his broken bones

His face was pale and ill-o

Then he says"Me mare you've served me well

But you may serve me still-o

For if I cut open my good mare's side

Then I may not be lost-o

And if I place all my leg inside

It'll save me from the frost-o"

So he's cut open her belly wide

And that was how they found him

Alive, and with his leg inside

The corpse still warm around him

They've taken him down to Richmond town,

His leg they have took off him

And in Saint Mary's old churchyard

They've placed it in a coffin

And ten years after did Willance die

And as he had decided

His leg it was dug up again

And they were reunited

Willance's Leap, why the place is known

And you can still read there-o

His words upon the marking stone

As thanks to God and mare-o.

Oh Willance he was a wealthy man,

In Richmond did reside-o

And all to take of the winter's air

For Marrick he did ride-o

But 'ere the priory was into view

He's headed back for town-o

As on the top of the Whitcliffe Scar

The mist comes clouding down-o

He's picked his way all through the mist

And as he heads for home-o

There's many a stream aye and ditch to cross

Along the way he's come-o

And when he's come to the first bankside

"Go well me mare" says he-o

And out she leaps all through the mist

And safe has landed she-o

So whe he's come to the next bankside

Again she leaps the mare-o

And here again at the third bankside

So bravely through the air-o

But when he's come to the next bankside

He tightly holds the rein-o

And across the ditch, be short or wide

She blindly leaps again-o