Wallboot Jill - she spurns the ground For mortar, slate & sill! Wallboot Jill - she skips the sky! Her flaming eyes can kill!
In Stepney Town, down Limehouse way A frightful figure stalks the night In pitch-black cloak & Devil's cap She leaps the rooftops out of sight And then she comes a-leaping down To scare you right to death With awful wailing shrieks Fiery eyes & burning breath
Some say she is a phantom Others say she is a ghoul She blasphemes Nature's law Gravity becomes her fool Her cursèd boots can run on walls Aslant-ways, like a loon She dashes, jumps & leaps & springs Beneath the London moon
Wallboot Jill - she spurns the ground For mortar, slate & sill! Wallboot Jill - she skips the sky! Her flaming eyes can kill!
In Hammersmith a portly maid Was hanging out the sheets A gloomy night was hanging low Upon the lamp-lit streets When Wallboot Jill came screaming down And fixed the maid in sight The woman's ears all squirted blood She dropped dead from the fright
On Highgate Hill an old coachman Was driving down the lane Thick icy frost was crystalling On every window pane Wallboot Jill leaped from the dark With shrieks & flaming flash And left nought but the horses' hooves And mounds of smoking ash
Wallboot Jill - she spurns the ground For mortar, slate & sill! Wallboot Jill - she skips the sky! Her flaming eyes can kill!
In Kensington a chimney sweep Was cleaning up the flue 'Til at the top his sooty face It popped a-blinking through But Wallboot Jill was waiting there Her fiery eyes blood red She scorched him to a cinder And then kicked his crispy head
In Clapham Town a sweaty cook Was carving up the meat The greens were boiled, the gravy hot The guests ready to eat Then Wallboot Jill leaped on the stove Her haunches set apart She roasted him to charcoal With a blazing hellfire fart
Wallboot Jill - she spurns the ground For mortar, slate & sill! Wallboot Jill - she skips the sky! Her flaming eyes can kill!
Now dressmakers & nursemaids Kindly handymen & porters Needy working couples With their hard-up sons & daughters In shops, kitchens & thoroughfares From Penge to Muswell Hill All perish in the fearsome fire Of shrieking Wallboot Jill
And throughout the city Every night is much the same Good working folk are vanishing And Wallboot Jill's to blame She shrieks along the rooftops And she flames across the sky The wealthy ones she leaves alone The poor ones wonder why
Wallboot Jill - she spurns the ground For mortar, slate & sill! Wallboot Jill - she skips the sky! Her flaming eyes can kill!
They say she hates the working man They say the less you earn The greater chance that Wallboot Jill Will want to see you burn For if you're a rich citizen Good Jill will see you well But if you're not, the wicked bitch Brings death & flaming hell
What of the honest workers? What of those who merely strive To keep the city working And humbly to stay alive? Those fellows are being murdered With no evidence m'lud But a stink like burning bacon And a hiss of sizzling blood
Wallboot Jill - she spurns the ground For mortar, slate & sill! Wallboot Jill - she skips the sky! Her flaming eyes can kill!
So if you ply a humble trade Or work hard for your betters Then heed the cruel warning Jill has burned in flaming letters: 'You slave away all night & day And now you're out of luck - I'm Wallboot Jill! I'm here to kill The oiks & common muck!'
Wallboot Jill - she spurns the ground For mortar, slate & sill! Wallboot Jill - she skips the sky! Her flaming eyes can kill!