Welcome to h2g2's attempt to decipher the mystery that is the song 'The 12 Days of Christmas'. You've come to the page that is concentrating on the line Ten Lords A-leaping, and here's what our Researchers came up with when we asked them what on earth this line meant.

• Not so long ago it was an honour and a social coup to be an investor (or a 'Name') in the insurance company Lloyds of London, not to mention a financially-rewarding experience. But after recruiting thousands of Names in the '70s and '80s the firm was hit by a succession of natural disasters, and by 1992 the crisis at Lloyd's reached a head. After years of financial gains thousands of Names were hit with enormous bills, and several committed suicide. Public sympathy was pretty low, but it did provide one of the most enduring images of the post-'80s crash, that of low-flying city stockholders.

• This line obviously refers to the event when someone scores a six at Lord's Cricket Ground, spiritual home of the strangest game on the planet. Well, Lord's would be leaping if the crowd wasn't so stuffed full of beer, sandwiches, more beer, pork pies, champagne and nibbles from Fortnum and Mason. Toodle pip!

• The British House of Lords, one house of the British Governmental System (not far in concept from the US Senate) lost its privilege to create hereditary peers in 1999. This means that they no longer have to listen to boring speeches until the wee small hours; instead they can enjoy their traditional pursuits of drinkin', eatin', drinkin', huntin', shootin', fishin' and drinkin' without let or hindrance - until huntin' is banned that is, but this is a Christmas song so we won't get into that now.