Yorkshire Dialect Poems (1673-1915) and traditional poems

Ridin' t' Stang(1)

     (Grassington Version)

     Traditional

     Hey dilly, how dilly, hey dilly, dang!
        It's nayther for thy part, nor my part,
           That I ride the stang.
        But it's for Jack Solomon,
           His wife he did bang.
        He bang'd her, he bang'd her,
           He bang'd her indeed,
        He bang'd t' poor woman
           Tho' shoo stood him no need.
     He nayther took stick, stain, wire, nor stower,(2)
     But he up wi' a besom an' knock'd her ower.
     So all ye good neighbours who live i' this raw,
     I pray ye tak warnin', for this is our law.
        An' all ye cross husbands
           Who do your wives bang,
        We'll blow for ye t' horn  ,
          An' ride for ye t' stang.
              Hip, hip, hip, hurrah!

     1 From B. J. Harker's Rambles in Upper Wharfedale. Other
     versions, more or less similar to the above, are to be found in R.
     Blakeborough's Wit, Folklore, and Customs of the North Riding, and
     J. Nicholson's Folk Speech of the East Riding. In the Yorkshire
     Dialect Society's Transactions, vol. iii., part xvi., will be found a
     racy account, in the Beverley dialect, of the custom of "ridin' t'
     stang."

     2. Pole.