Recordings & Info 162. The Hunting of Cheviot
[There are three articles on this ballad and the related, "The Battle of Otterburn," attached to this page.]
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
5) Folk Index
6) Wiki
7) Info from: Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge 1917
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 223: The Hunting of Cheviot (93 Listings)
2) "Hunting of the Cheviot" and "Battle of Otterburn"
3) Towards Restoring The Hunting of the Cheviot
4) Otterburn: A Battle and Two Ballads
Alternative Titles
Chevy Chase
Traditional Ballad Index: The Hunting of Cheviot [Child 162]
NAME: Hunting of the Cheviot, The [Child 162]
DESCRIPTION: Percy, Earl of Northumberland, goes deer hunting into Earl Douglas' land of (Cheviot/Chevy Chase), in defiance of a warning from Douglas. In battle they earn each other's respect, but both die, along with many of their men.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1765 (Percy; mentioned in "Wit's End" in 1617 and in the Stationer's Register in 1624)
KEYWORDS: battle hunting death nobility
HISTORICAL_REFERENCES: 1388 - Battle of Otterburn. Scots under Douglas attack England. Although Douglas is killed in the battle, the Scots defeat the English and capture their commander Harry "Hotspur" Percy
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(North),Scotland) US(NE,SE)
REFERENCES: (20 citations)
Child 162, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (2 texts)
Bronson 162, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (10 versions)
Percy/Wheatley I, pp. 20-35+notes on pp. 51-52, "The Ancient Ballad of Chevy Chase"; pp. 249-264, "The More Modern Ballad of Chevy Chace" (sic.) (2 texts)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 243-248, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 135-144, "The Hunting of the Cheviot, or Chevy Chase" (1 text, from "The Charms of Melody" rather than tradition)
Davis-Ballads 34, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (1 text)
Davis-More 31, pp. 239-244, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5}
Leach, pp. 446-463, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (3 texts)
Friedman, p. 276, "Chevy Chase" (1 text, 2 tunes) {approximating Bronson's #1, #4}
Stokoe/Reay, pp. 1-3, "Chevy Chase" (1 text, 1 tune) {cf. Bronson's #6, also from Stokoe's collection but differing in one note}
OBB 128, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
PBB 71, "Chevy Chase (The Hunting of the Cheviot)" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 105-115+325-327, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (1 text)
Hodgart, p. 96, "Chevy Chase (The Hunting of the Cheviot)" (1 text)
TBB 21, "The Hunting of the Cheviot" (1 text)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 93-101, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Abrahams/Foss, pp. 43-45, "Chevy Chase" (1 text)
Chappell/Wooldridge I, pp. 90-92, "Chevy Chase" (1 tune, perhaps linked to this piece)
BBI, ZN980, "God prosper long our Noble King"; ZN982, "God prosper long our noble king" (?)
DT 162, CHEVCHAS*
Roud #223
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "The Battle of Otterburn" (subject)
cf. "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet" [Child 73] (tune)
SAME_TUNE:
Of Turkey lately I did read/The Patient Wife betrayed; Or, The Lady Elizabeths Tragedy (BBI ZN2124)
Give o'er you rhiming Cavaliers/ Bloody News from Chelmsford (BBI ZN971)
In bloody town of Newberry/...Shuff of Newberry (BBI ZN1413)
In Popish time when Bishops proud/The King and the Bishop ((BBI ZN1452)
In searching ancient chronicles/A pleasant history of a Gentleman in Thracia (BBI ZN1461)
Strange news, strange news, I here have write/..Relation from the Faulcon.. Mr Powel [a ghost] (BBI ZN2405)
Amongst the Forresters of old/The Unfortunate Forrester ...Lord Thomas.. fair Elener (BBI ZN173)
God prosper long our noble King, and send him quickly o'er/Hunting-Match (BBI ZN986)
When as my mind was fully bent/ Bloudy News from Germany (BBI ZN2821)
All you which sober minded are/Terrible News from Branford (BBI ZN155)
All tender hearts that ake to hear/The Spanish Virgin (BBI ZN97)
God prosper long our noble king, His Turks and Germans all/An excellent new Ballad (BBI ZN983)
God hath preserved our Royal King/The Royal Patient Traveller [Charles II] (BBI ZN978)
NOTES: Child opines that this is based on the same events as "The Battle of Otterburn" (Child #161) rather than some other border battle between Percies and Douglases. The historical Henry Percy (Hotspur) fought [and] was captured [by the Scots], but did not in fact die at Otterburn in 1388 or at any other battle with Scots but was instead slain in battle with Henry IV's forces. - KK
In addition, Harry Hotspur was never Earl of Northumberland. His father (the first of five generations of Henry Percys of Northumberland) was the first Earl, and lived until 1408. Hotspur was killed in 1403, and thus never succeeded to the title, although Hotspur's son became the second Earl.
However, none of the various Earls Percy died in battle with the Scots. The first Earl was a traitor against Henry IV; the second (d. 1455) and third (d. 1461) were casualties of the Wars of the Roses, and the fourth was killed by the people of his own Earldom because he had not supported Richard III at Bosworth. (Richard, despite his later reputation, was loved in the north of England for being fair and honest and keeping the Scots away from the borders.)
As E. K. Chambers, comments (_English Literature at the Close of the Middle Ages_, Oxford, 1945, 1947, p. 162), "_The Hunting_ is even more remote from historical verity than _Otterburn_. The scene is laid in the Cheviot hills, where not Hotspur but Earl Percy goes to hunt, in defiance of Douglas, and the event is put in the reign of Henry IV [1399-1413] rather than Richard II [1377-1399]. Douglas is killed by an arrow, Percy by Sir Hugh Montgomery, Montgomery himself by another arrow. But the battle is called Otterburn. King Henry avenges i in that of Homildon Hill (1402)."
Izaak Walton's _Compeat Angler_ refers to this tune (Chapter II), although in a strange list mixing folk songs ("Johnny Armstrong," "Chevy Chase") and art songs ("As at Noon Dulcina Rested," "Phyllida Flouts Me").
Sir Philip Sidney, in his _Apologie for Poetrie_ of 1595, write, "I neuer heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas (sic.), that I found mot my heart mooued more then with a Trumpet." It is not possible, however, to tell whether this is a reference to "The Battle of Otterburn" [Child 161] or "The Hunting of the Cheviot" [Child 162]. - RBW
Child Collection Index: Child Ballad 162: The Hunting of the Cheviot
Child--- Artist--- Title--- Album--- Year--- Length--- Have
162 Bob Coltman Chevy Chase Son of Child 1976 4:03 Yes
162 Bob Davenport & Jack Armstrong Chevy Chace Northumbrian Minstrelsy 1964 1:58 >Yes
162 Colin Ross Chevy Chase Northumbrian Folk 1971 1:00 Yes
162 David Kilpatrick Chevy Chase '99 David Kilpatrick 2005 3:22 Yes
162 Gordeanna McCulloch Chevy Chase Sheath & Knife - Traditional Songs & Ballads from Scotland 2000 3:40 Yes
162 Jack Armstrong Chevy Chase + The Cott The Secret Museum of Mankind Vol. 5 - Ethnic Music Classics: 1925-48 2005 No
162 Jack Armstrong & Patricia Jennings Chevy Chase + The Waters of Tyne The EFDSS Presents Folksound of Britain 1965 No
162 Jerry Bryant & Starboard Mess Chevy Chase Roast Beef of Old England - Traditional Sailor Songs from Jack Aubrey's Navy 2000 2:14 Yes
162 Kathleen Danson Read Chevy Chase or the Hunting of the Cheviot Spoken Literature of Early English Ballads 1956 9:54 Yes
162 Robin Williamson Flowres of the Forrest + Cromlet's Lilt + Chevy Chase Legacy of the Scottish Harpers 1984 3:10 Yes
162 The Boston Camerata & Joel Cohen Chevy Chase + The King's Hunt Is Upp + The English Hunt's Up New Britain: The Roots of American Folksong 1989 2:16 Yes
162 The High Level Ranters Chevy Chase + the Alnwick Football Song English Sporting Ballads 1976 4:42 Yes
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
162. THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT OR CHEVY CHASE
'Texts: Barry, Brit Bids Me, 243 / Davis, Trd Bid Va, 416 / Ford, Broadsides, Bids, etc. Mass, #s 301113 / Harvard University Library Broadside #25242.53 (312) / Mason, Cannon Cnty, 15.
Local titles: The Battle of Chevy Chase. The Battle of Shiver Chase.
Story Types: A: Percy kills some deer in Scotland, and Douglas, objecting, says he will prevent future foraging. Subsequently, after a feast on slain deer, Percy and his men are attacked by Douglas and his clan. The two leaders are going to fight, but a squire steps forth and announces that he will not stand by while his earl fights. Eventually, however, Douglas and
Percy do battle alone. Percy weakens, and Douglas asks him to surrender. When the Englishman refuses he is slain. An arrow from an English bow then kills Douglas, and a general fight follows. Individual deeds and men are described and named.
Examples: Barry, Davis.
B: A fragment tells in two stanzas of a brutal fight between two earls.
Examples: Mason.
Discussion: The Virginia and Maine texts, both incomplete, follow Child B rather than Child A. However, the fighting has been abbreviated in Virginia, and the order of the deaths changed. See Davis, Trd Bid Fa, 416 and Barry, Brit Bid Me, 247 for summaries and stanza comparisons.
The Chevy Chase tune was popular in the Revolution (see The Cow Chase). For a Revolutionary War anecdote concerning the song, see Barry, op. tit., 248 quoted from William Gordon, History of the Rise. . . of the Independence of the United States of America, London, 1788, I, 481.
Folk Index: Chevy Chase/Chace [Ch 162]
At - Hunting of the Cheviot
Sm - In Peascod Time ; Flying Fame
Mf - Ballad of General Woodhull ; Three Children Sliding (on the Ice) ; Midshipman Paulding ; Winter of Life
Abrahams, Roger; & George Foss / Anglo-American Folksong Style, Prentice-Hall, Sof (1968), 3-3
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p277 [1750s]
Brander, Michael (ed.) / Scottish and Border Ballads and Battles, Barnes & Nobel, Bk (1993/1976), p233 (Hunting of the Cheviot)
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p447 [1550ca] (Hunting of the Cheviot)
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p454
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p460
Leach, MacEdward / The Heritage Book of Ballads, Heritage, Bk (1967), p 73
Cheetham, William. Kidson, Frank (ed.) / Traditional Tunes. A Collection of Ballad Airs, S.R. Publishers, Bk (1970/1891), p 19 [1880s]
Galloway, G. W.. Moore, Ethel & Chauncey (ed.) / Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest, Univ. of Okla, Bk (1964), p 91/# 34 [1940s]
Williamson, Robin. Legacy of the Scottish Harpers, Flying Fish FF 358, LP (1984), trk# 2c
The Ballad of Chevy Chase: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the ballads. For other uses, see Chevy Chase (disambiguation).
There are two extant English ballads known as The Ballad of Chevy Chase, both of which narrate the same story. As ballads existed within oral tradition before being written down, other versions of this once popular song may also have existed.
The ballads tell the story of a large hunting party upon a parcel of hunting land (or chase) in the Cheviot Hills, hence the term, Chevy Chase. The hunt is led by Percy, the English Earl of Northumberland. The Scottish Earl of Douglas had forbidden this hunt, and interprets it as an invasion of Scotland. In response he attacks, causing a bloody battle which only 110 people survived. Both ballads were collected in Thomas Percy's Reliques and the first of the ballads in Francis James Child's Child Ballads.
Historical basis
The ballads are thought to have been based on the events of the Battle of Otterburn in 1388, although the account of the battle is not historically accurate and it may relate to border skirmishes up to fifty years later. Nevertheless, the first ballad includes the lines
This was the hontynge off the Cheviat,
that tear begane this spurn;
Old men that knowen the grownde well yenoughe
call it the battell of Otterburn.
There is also a third ballad named The Battle of Otterburn (ballad) which is assuredly about this battle.
First ballad
The first of the two ballads of Chevy Chase was perhaps written as early as the 1430s, but the earliest record we have of it is in The Complaynt of Scotland, one of the first printed books from Scotland. The Complaynt of Scotland was printed about 1540, and in it the ballad is called The Hunting of Cheviot.
Sir Philip Sidney said of this early ballad:
"I never Heard the old song of Percie and Douglas, that I found not my heart moved more than with a trumpet" — Defence of Poesy.
Second ballad
In 1711 Joseph Addison wrote in The Spectator,
The old song of "Chevy-Chase" is the favourite ballad of the common people of England, and Ben Jonson used to say he had rather have been the author of it than of all his works. Sir Philip Sidney, in his discourse of Poetry, speaks of it in the following words: "I never heard the old song of Percy and Douglas that I found not my heart more moved than with a trumpet; and yet it is sung by some blind crowder with no rougher voice than rude style, which being so evil apparelled in the dust and cobweb of that uncivil age, what would it work trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar?" For my own part, I am so professed an admirer of this antiquated song, that I shall give my reader a critique upon it without any further apology for so doing.[1]
Addison was apparently unaware that the ballad he then goes on to analyse in detail was not the same work praised by Sidney and Jonson.[1] The second of the ballads appears to have been written in modernized English shortly after Sidney's comments, perhaps around 1620, and to have become the better-known version.
Other literary references
In Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, before their relationship blossoms, Catherine Heathcliff (née Catherine Linton) scorns Hareton Earnshaw's primitive attempts at reading, saying, “I wish you would repeat Chevy Chase as you did yesterday; it was extremely funny!”[2]
In Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, on hearing the conversation between Mr. Thornton and her father, Margaret Hale wonders “How in the world had they got from cog-wheels to Chevy Chase?”[3]
Notes
1.^ a b The Works of Joseph Addison: Complete in Three Volumes: Embracing the Whole of the "Spectator," &c, Harper & Brothers, 1837, p.117
2.^ Brontë, Emily: Wuthering Heights, Chapter 31 (Wikisource link)
3.^ "North and South", Chapter 10 (Wikisource link)
From: Ballads and Songs
G. L. Kittredge
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369
THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT (Child, No. 162).
In this Journal, 18 : 294, Barry notes a broadside of "Chevy Chace" printed by N. Coverly, Jr., Boston (early nineteenth century), and gives the tune from a Newburyport (Mass.) manuscript of 1790. "The Death of Old Tenor," a Massachusetts song of 1750, is to the tune of "Chevy Chace" (Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, 20:30). The Harvard College Library has a broadside (apparently American) of "Chevy Chace" (25242.53 1312]) dating from the eighteenth century.