I wish GUEST smiler would stop by again and explain which bits of the song he is attacking for their lack of scansion. It seems completely regular to me, the only variations being one or two syllables oick up notes at the beginning of lines
eg
"Away my brave boys"
as opposed to
"If a thousand gainsay it".
    This song is infinitely more regular than many justly more famous folksongs: I have nevr heard "Searching for lambs" or "The Wild Rover" criticised on grounds of irregularly scanned lines, for eample.
Which reinforces my impression that GUEST, smiler's objection to the scansion is completely specious: what he actually doesnt like is the so-called sport of hunting, which is another question altogether. However I will gladly admit I am wrong if he can povide examples of previous threads where he has criticised other folksongs for their scansion problems.