The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #4344   Message #23516
Posted By: Wolfgang Hell
11-Mar-98 - 07:41 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: Swarthfell Rocks
Subject: Lyr Add: SWARTHFELL ROCKS
There has been a request for this song in another thread. So here it is from a photocopy that says "Noted by F. Kidson, sung by Miss A. Bownass of Windermere" (I don't know from which book I once copied this).
Wolfgang

SWARTHFELL ROCKS

1. Early one morning as I rose from me bed
I heard "Hark, hark away, boys!" so clearly,
Then I drew a little nearer for to see who was there
That was going fox-hunting so early.
(Chorus: repeat last two lines of each verse)

2. There were some gentlemen who had come from Patterdale,
They had come for to make out a trial,
To see the hounds run in the North, where they had great fame and worth,
And most of them without any denial.

3. It was then on Swarthfell Rocks where we laid on our hounds,
Not thinking the tops being likely;
Now a huntsman long I've been, but the like I've never seen,
We unkenneled bold Reynard so early.

4. Out cries Henry Wilkinson, "Hark, hark away, my boys!"
Joe Clark, our foot sportsman soon heard him;
Richard Mounsey cried, "Oh zounds! you may couple up your hounds,
For this day you will never come near him."

5. They came through How Town moor, it being late an hour,
Sometimes one hound and sometimes another,
It was hard to be expressed which of them ran him best,
For they all ran abreast close together.

6. There was "Tipler", "Towly", "Fairmaid" and "Jolly",
There was "Countess", "Blossom" and "Fury",
Several other hounds ran close within his bounds,
But these were the hounds that ran near him.

7. Richard Mounsey rode amain, and he whipt up o'er the plain,
Joe Thompson's grey mare got no favour,
It was up the highest hill and down the deepest glen,
Expecting his life for our labour.

8. They came through Hallin Hag, their course it being strong,
I'm sure there would be little ease in it,
But our hounds they ran amain, and laid him in again,
And he took Sharrow Woods for his cover.

9. Then Reynard being weary, and seeking for shelter,
His way was to take straight over-
But the hounds they ran him well, and turned him in again,
And there they destroyed him forever.

10. Old "Lilter" followed in, and never more was seen,
Which caused our brave sportsmen to murmur,
For a finer little hound never ran upon the ground;
She was the bonniest little hound in the number.

11. So now to conclude, and finish my song,
This gallant fox hunt is all over;
It's the forty-second fox that's been slain from Swarthfell Rocks,
So that's put an end to my story.