Thanks, Jim - the Lake District seems to be a more fitting setting for The Eskdale Hare. Whitby is lovely, but the Eskdale development there is rather dreary.
Malcolm, remember that the "Earliest Date" category in the Traditional Ballad Index is the earliest date of the song in the publications covered by the Ballad Index. It is not an attempt to give an actual earliest date for the song itself. It's a very handy thing in many ways, but it is a bit misleading unless you read the introduction to the Ballad Index.
-Joe Offer-