Sally Sloane
Lithgow
Recorded May 1976

The Old Oak Tree Murder

Dark was the night cold blew the blast and quickly fell the rain
When Eliza left her own dear home and never returned again
She promised James, her own true love that with him she would be
At ten O'clock that very night beneath the old oak tree

They came home to their old home and Eliza was not there
No more it grieved her own dear friends to know where she could roam
At last her widowed mother cried just like a woman wild
I'll search those woods, wood around, and I'll find my darling child

For three long weary weeks or more they searched the woods all round
Till the journey proved of no avail and Eliza was not found
The cause of all this sad, sad world was the owner of this ground
Squire Scobell went out to hunt all with his own best hounds

Those dogs commenced to sniff and snare and tear away the ground
It was more than he or whip could do to drive
They buried him just where he lay no christian grave got he
No man was found to burst the ground beneath the old oak tree

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