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Hunting the Hare

[ Roud 1181 ; Master title: Hunting the Hare ; Ballad Index BeCo437 ; VWML SBG/3/2/8 , CJS2/10/774 ; Mudcat 62514 ; Welsh trad., English words A.P. Graves]

Geoff and Pennie Harris sang Hare Hunting in 1975 on the Trailer album of the season, Maypoles to Mistletoe. The tune is the traditional Welsh Hela’r Ysgyfarnog and the English words are from A.P. Graves’ The Celtic Song Book (1928). The dogs’ role-call reminds me a bit of Dido Bendigo.

Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts sang Hunting the Hare in 1995 on their eponymous album, Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts. This video shows them at the Albert Hole, Bristol, on 10 June 1994:

Jon Boden sang Hunting the Hare as the 10 October 2010 entry of his project A Folk Song a Day. He commented in the blog:

I absolutely loved the Kate Rusby & Kathryn Roberts album. I got it in my second year at uni and drove my housemates mad with it. Strangely I never learnt anything from it (although I was already singing Suzanne Vega’s Soldier & the Queen—should I record that for this thinking about it…?), but finally got round to learning this a few months ago.

Martin and Shan Graebe sang Hunting the Hare and Adam the Poacher in 2008 on their WildGoose CD Dusty Diamonds. They noted:

SB-G Manuscript Ref. P3, 47 (420). Two songs about mistreating hares. Actually, we rather like hares and there is no way we would say “go out and do it”, but these are magnificent tunes. […] Hunting the Hare was included in Robert Bell’s Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of the Peasantry of England (1857). Though Baring-Gould did collect a version of the song in Devon [VWML SBG/3/2/8] , we liked this tune which was sent to him in 1899 having been taken down from an old man (un-named) at St. Genys in Cornwall.

Liederjan and Iontach sang Hunting the Hare in 2010 on their Westpark CD Liedertach. They noted:

The hunting of hares, or hare coursing, still takes place in many countries including Britain and Ireland. However, in Ireland it is carried out in an enclosed environment over a certain distance, a maximum number of hares are netted and trained for eight weeks before the event, the dogs wear muzzles, and afterwards the hares are re-released into the wild in the area in which they were originally netted. Thus the skill of the dog is tested without the killing of the hare. We’ve left it to the girls to get their tongues around this one!

Tom and Barbara Brown sang The Hunting the Hare in 2014 on their WildGoose CD of songs collected by Cecil Sharp from Captains Lewis and Vickery by in Minehead, Somerset, Just Another Day. They noted:

There are a few versions of this classic hare-hunting song; Martin and Shan Graebe recorded one collected by Sabine Baring-Gould on their Dusty Diamonds CD, and we’ve even seen it in print as Somersetshire Hunting Song. This is Vickery’s version [VWML CJS2/10/774] —with more hunting-song clichés than you could throw a drag at. Tom sees no purpose in hare hunting—but then he is bald!

Lyrics

Geoff and Pennie Harris sing Hare Hunting (Hela’r Ysgyfarnog)

O the yelping of hounds, the skelping,
Along the cover and out at the back!
O the galloping, O the walloping!
O the rush of the "gone away" Jack!
Off like a feather he floats on the heather—
Blackberry calling the tune in his track,
Spot and Spider, and Beauty beside her,
The Red Rake and the rest of the pack.

Now they’ve lost him and now they’re finding him,
Now he’s winding ’em round by the stack!
Hark! the horn! to the height we follow ’em,
Cheer and holloa ’em for’ard or back.
Ne’er such a frisker at fate cocked a whisker,
Or bustled us brisker, than yonder old Jack.
One more double across the stubble,
And he’s in trouble and tossed by the pack.

Bay and grey are away to the stable,
And jovial hunters the table attack;
Meat we’re munching and oats they’re crunching,
And pails they empty and bottles they crack.
Here’s to the Master! no fairer or faster
To steady the heady or screw up the slack!
Here’s to the Hunt! and our glasses a-jingle
With joy commingle—and here’s to the Pack!

Kate Rusby and Kathryn Roberts sing Hunting the Hare

Well, all the yelping of hounds, the skelping,
Along the cover and out at the back!
O the galloping, O the walloping!
O the cry of the “gone away” Jack!
Off like a feather, he floats o’er the heather—
And Blackberry calls him a tune in his track.
There’s Spot and Spider and Beauty beside her,
Then Red Rake and the rest of the pack.

Well, now they’re losing him, now they’re finding him,
Now they’re winding him round by the stack!
Hark! the horn! to the heights we follow ’em,
And whoop and holler and for’ard and back.
Sure there’s none brisker who faint cocked a whisker
Nor bustles more brisker than yonder old Jack.
One more double across the stubble,
And he’s in trouble and tossed by the pack.

Then Brayer and Stayer are away to the stable,
With jovial huntsmen the table attack;
It’s meat we’re munching and oats they’re crunching,
As pails are emptied and bottles are cracked.
Here’s to the Master! None fairer, none faster,
To steady the ready and screw up the slack!
Here’s to the Hunt! With your glasses a-jingle,
With joy commingle—and here’s to the Pack!

Tom and Barbara Brown sing Hunting of the Hare

What joys can compare with the hunting of the hare
In the morning, boys, in the morning, boys,
In the sweet and the pleasant weather?

Chorus (after each verse):
When the bugle horn does sound,
We’ve got sport all on the ground,
Ran-tan-tero, huzzah, ran-tan-tero, huzzah,
Ran-tan-tero, my boys, we’ll follow.

And when poor puss arise then away from us she flies,
And we’ll give her, boys, and we’ll give her, boys,
One thundering and loud holler.

And when poor puss is killed, we’ll retire from the field,
And we’ll count, boys, and we’ll count, boys,
On the same good run tomorrow.

So what joys can compare with the hunting of the hare
In the morning, boys, in the morning, boys,
In the sweet and the pleasant weather?