Sue Allen: Makes good sense, I never thought of that. Similar to "We set sail on ..." songs. I'm not clear that these, same chorus or not, are the same song as the sentient animal ones though.

Guest BB: Thanks. I'll look into them. You also spurred me to be marginally less stupid and look on my own bookshelf.

Sam Henry's Songs of the People [H172, p131] gives a variant I haven't seen. From the hunted hare's standpoint it's all crap (see last line). Instead of praising those gallant riders that killed him, he roundly condemns them. Seems much more realistic.

                        THE HARE'S DREAM

On the twenty-sixth of January, and in the seventieth year,
The morning being beautiful, charming, bright and clear,
I being disturbed with dreams as I lay in my den,
I dreamed of heathery mountains, of high rock and low glen.

        With my hark, tally ho! hark over yon brow.
        'She's over,' says the huntsman, 'and yonder she'll go.'

As I sat in my form for to view the plains round,
I being trembling and shaking for fear of the hounds,
And seeing no danger appearing to me,
I quickly walked up to the top o' Sligue.

They hunted me up and they hunted me down,
At the loop of the burn they did me surround,
But up came the huntsman to end all the strife,
He says, 'Leave the hare down and give her play for her. life.'

Bad luck to all sportsmen, to Bowman and Ringwood,
They sprinkled the plain with my innocent blood,
They let Reynard go free, that cunning old fox
That ate all the chickens, fat hens and game cocks.

It's now I'm for dying, and I know not the crime,
To the value of sixpence I ne'er wronged mankind.
I never was given to rob or to steal,
All the harm e'er I done was crap the heads o' green kale.

5.4: crap [crop] = to remove the upper or outer parts of, to clip.

Sam Henry says:
"The '70th year' mentioned in the song must mean 1770 as both these contributors knew the song since childhood, i.e., about 1850."