Note to a version from the BBC archives.
Jim Carroll

SOULING SONG: CHESHIRE
Singer: Matthew Hollinshead                                                                4.42    22350
Swettenham, Congleton, Cheshire.
12.11.54 (P.K.)
Part 1: Five verses (which were sung outside):
'We are two or three good nearly lads/And we're all in one mind/For we have come a-souling/Good nature to find….. Refrain: 'For we have come a-souling as it does appear/ 'And it's all that we are souling for is your money and you; beer'.
'O come dearest mistress do not tarry to spend….. Come pick up your sackies good dame ..... Step down in your cellars.... put your hands in your pocket ... 'f you'll give us nought, we will take nought, but farewell and goodnight..'
Part 2: The 'calling-on song' (i.e. introducing -the characters in the Mummers' (Soulcakers') play:-
'The first that steps up is Lord Nelson you see....'
Singer explained that this was sung in the Congleton district about forty-five years ago.- They went out soul-caking during the first three days of November with tissue-paper ribbons sewn onto their clothes and masks on their faces.