Readers of Arthur Ransome's book Swallowdale may recall on pp 119 and 122 a fox hunting song. It has one or two scant resemblances to "The Eskdale and Ennerdale Hunt Song," but otherwise I can't find anything like it in the DT. Anyone know its source, or the song it comes from?

[Holmbrook Hunt Song?]

One morning last winter to Holmbrook there came
A brave noble sportsman, Squire Sandys was his name,
Came a hunting the fox, Bold Reynard must die,
And he flung out his train and began for to cry:

Cho: Tally-ho! Tally-ho! Hark, forward, away! Tally-ho!

Of such a fox chase there never was known,
The huntsmen and followers were instantly thrown,
To keep within sound didn't lie in their power,
For hounds chased the fox eighty mile in five hour.

...

Ransome was a folklorist-journalist by trade who stuck songs in his "Swallows and Amazons" books, including a few well-known sea chanties. This, however, is another matter: apparently a rarity. Can anyone identify it at all?

Bob