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The Folkestone Murders

from A Life Spent Staring At Chairs by Paul Carbuncle

/

lyrics

Kind friends, come pay attention and listen to my song,
It is about a murder, it won’t detain you long.
’Twas near the town of Folkestone this shocking deed was done,
Maria and sweet Caroline were murdered by Switzerland John.

He came unto their parents’ house at nine o’clock one night
But little did poor Caroline think he owed her any spite.
‘Will you walk with me, dear Caroline?’ the murderer did say
And she agreed to accompany him to Shorncliffe Camp next day.

Said the mother to the daughter, ‘You’d better stay at home,
It is not fit for you to walk with that young man alone.
You’d better take your sister to go along with you,
Then I have no objection, dear daughter, you may go.’

Early next morning before the break of day
Maria and sweet Caroline from Dover town did stray,
But before they reached to Folkestone the villain drew a knife,
Maria and sweet Caroline, he took away their life.

Down on the ground the sisters fell all in their blooming years,
For mercy cried, ‘We’re innocent!’, their eyes were filled with tears.
He plunged the knife into their breasts, those lovely breasts so deep,
He robbed them of their own sweet lives and left them there to sleep.

At eight o’clock next morning their bodies they were found
At a lonely spot called Steady Hole, a-bleeding on the ground,
And if you go unto that place these letters you will find
Cut deeply in the grass so green: ‘Maria and Caroline’.

When the news it reached their parents’ ears they cried, ‘What shall we do?
Maria has been murdered and lovely Caroline too!’
They pulled and tore their old grey hair in sorrow and dismay
And tears they rolled in torrents down their poor aged cheeks.

Well, this murderer has been taken, his companions do him deny,
And he is sent to Maidstone and is condemned to die.
He’s said farewell to all his friends, ‘In this world I am alone
And have to die for murder far from my native home.

The dismal bell is tolling, for the scaffold I must prepare.
I trust in heaven my soul shall rest and meet dear Caroline there.
Now all young men take warning by this sad fate of mine,
To the memory of Maria Back and lovely Caroline.’

credits

from A Life Spent Staring At Chairs, released April 9, 2018
Traditional song, arranged by Paul Carbuncle.

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Paul Carbuncle Nottingham, UK

You can take the lad out of Pluckley but he'll still sing about hops.

Profile photo by Hugh Miller.

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