The “Mayers” went about singing and soliciting alms for some weeks
before the first of May. The following is a portion of one of their
songs, and a variant may be found in Halliwell’s _Palatine Anthology_,
which was given to him by Ormerod, the Cheshire historian. The tune
taken down by Egerton Leigh, and given in his book of poems, is
terribly mutilated, but I have reconstructed it by the aid of a very
similar Lancashire tune. It is undoubtedly old, and the commencement
on the supertonic is very quaint. The words are distinctly above the
average of old ballads:
[Music: CHESHIRE MAYING SONG]