The Legend of Bertie Bucket

This is the story of Bertie Bucket

A highway man of daring and some notoriety

Who plied his trade around Rye and Hawkhurst

In 1740 but he was not that good you see

He came from a long line of Buckets

There were ten of them in all

His parents were a steadfast couple who had ten children

Five brothers, four sisters and one I cannot recall

He started stealing from an early age

About ten or twelve I think

He stole the purse of a well know judge

Which created such a stink

He ran away to the town of Rye

Where he found work as a stable boy

And learned to ride a horse quite well

And to be a Highway man was the ploy

So in a few years, five or six or so

He started his life of criminality

With his trusty new steed Old Bess a big black mare

They became a team you see

He rode the trails from Rye to Dungeness

Robbing Travelers Coaches and the like

The problem was the authorities

Never could find out where he would strike

On one such daring escapade

Everything went wrong that could

Whilst pulling his pistol from out of his belt

It went off and Bess galloped off into the nearby wood

It only just missed from shooting his toe off

 His boot was quite a mess

So off he went licking his wounds

In a state of great distress

A few days later he was back again

And tried to hold up a coach

But the coachman was not so easily scared

And Bertie was full of self reproach

But his luck ran out one fateful night

At the Tavern the old Mermaid Inn in Rye

He was captured by the local militia

He could not escape how hard he did try

He was up in court before the Judge

Whose  purse he had stolen years before

So he was sentenced to Hang as soon as it could be arranged

But a gale force wind broke down the court door

He leapt from the dock and was out in a flash

Grabbed a nearby horse and galloped away with speed

Out into the darkness never to be seen again

So any would be Highwaymen take heed.