Here's a completely different set of words that I've never heard anywhere else. It was recorded for Transatlantic by Dave and Toni Arthur ca. 1970, and uses the "normal" John Peel tune. It is rather too bloodthirsty for our current climate of opinion. Does anyone know where these words came from, and how old they are?

D'YE MIND JOHN PEEL

D'ye mind John Peel in the days gone by
How he cheered on the hounds with his jovial cry
And the blast of his horn echoed loudly and high
As it rang o'er the fields in the morning

CHORUS
Bright Phyllis he rode like a brave man and true
With his hounds on ahead and the fox full in view
While the green valleys rang with his loud whoop-haloo
And the blast of his horn in the morning.

Then away through the gorse-break, o'er moorland and fell
O'er swift-rolling rivers and deep craggy dell
John Peel was the foremost, that Reynard could tell
With his horn sounding shrill in the morning.

Oh, blithe was his heart when the death drew nigh
And cheery the glance of his bright blue eye
As he bore off the brush and waved it on high
With his horn sounding shrill in the morning.

Then a bumper, a bumper we'll swell in acclaim
And drain it with pride at the shrine of his fame
For long may each hunstman remember his name
And the blast of his horn in the morning.

@hunting @english
VRH

Wassail! V