Ghostly goings-on near Sydney

An English reader, Mike Elliott, who is amused at all the Thunderbolt goings-on covered in this blog, sent the following:

Ghostly Goings-on Near Sydney!
Or if you believe this...

One night as I was leaving St Ives
I met Cobb & Co with seven scribes.
The seven scribes each had long knives,
No pleasant night out these husbands and wives.

As like the clappers I run on by
But they bail me up and says my my,
What have we here? You a local guy?
Not me says I, I'm from Gundagai.

Well we're from all over and you can leave alive
If you tell us where to find Melaleuca Drive.
We've some-one there our swords to rive
Tell us quick now and you will survive.

But gentlefolk (I blagged) what you have in mind
I think would be best if your journey rewind.
For up ahead is the ghost of Fred Ward maligned
Your faces in his horse's s..t will surely grind.

Sod this says one, I'm going no further
I denounce my claim to being an author.
Another cries with surprising candour,
I'm chicken s..t too so with you I'll canter.

A third chimes in I'm all of a fluster
My bravado it seems I cannot muster.
Perhaps another my place take over
For in the coach I stay under cover.

A fourth of the party quite bravely boasts
Never in my life have I been afraid of ghosts;
But Fred is another matter, see the signposts
It's time I departed away from the coasts.

Five, six and seven all crap in their pants
They are certainly changing their former stance
As back into the coach as if in a trance
Cobb turns the coach and the horses prance.

The coach leaves with a jerk as the horses take fright
And gallops off home somewhere in the night.
Back to their scribblings now to put right
No more honest writers to give a bad fright.

As I stand there amazed and laughing out loud
I think of the bullies that have now  kowtowed.
And Mary Ann joins me, her face so proud
Holding hands we kiss and disappear as a cloud.