kiss of forman woman? Rise of It and of Lay Lay hi_low! Ge. H. In the clover or the Snow! POEMS OF ADVENTURE AND RURAL SPORTS. CHEVY-CHASE. [Percy, Earl of Northumberland, had vowed to hunt for three days in the Scottish border, without condescending to ask leave from Earl Douglas, who was either lord of the soil or lord warden of the Marches. This provoked the conflict which was celebrated in the old ballad of the "Hunting o' the Cheviot." The circumstances of the battle of Otterbourne (A. D. 1388) are woven into the ballad, and the affairs of the two events are confounded. The bal. lad preserved in the Percy Reliques is probably as old as 1574The one following is a modernized form, of the time of James I.] GOD prosper long our noble king, Our lives and safeties all; A woful hunting once there did In Chevy-Chase befall. To drive the deer with hound and horn The child may rue that is unborn The stout Earl of Northumberland The chiefest harts in Chevy-Chase Who sent Earl Percy present word With fifteen hundred bowmen bold, The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran And long before high noon they had A hundred fat bucks slain; And of the rest, of small account, Did many hundreds die : Thus endeth the hunting of Chevy-Chase, God save the king, and bless this land, RICHARD SHEALE. ROBIN HOOD AND ALLEN-A-DALE. [Of Robin Hood, the famous outlaw of Sherwood Forest, and his merry men, there are many ballads; but the limits of this volume forbid our giving more than a single selection. Various periods, ranging from the time of Richard I. to the end of the reign of Edward II., have been assigned as the age in which Robin Hood lived. He is usually described as a yeoman, abiding in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamsnire. His most noted followers, generally mentioned in the ballads, are Little John, Friar Tuck, his chaplain, and his maid Marian. Nearly all the legends extol his courage, his generosity, his humanity, and his skill as an archer. He robbed the rich only, who could afford to lose, and gave freely to the poor. He protected the needy, was a champion of the fair sex, and took great delight in plundering prelates. The following ballad exhib ts the outlaw in one of his most attractive aspects, — affording assistance to a distressed lover.] COME, listen to me, you gallants so free, As Robin Hood in the forest stood, There he was aware of a brave young man, The youngster was clad in scarlet red, And he did frisk it over the plain, As Robin Hood next morning stood There did he espy the same young man The scarlet he wore the day before It was clean east away; And at every step he fetched a sigh, "Alack and well-a-day!" Then stepped forth brave Little John, "Stand off! stand off!" the young man said, "What is your will with me?" "You must come before our master straight, Under yon greenwood tree." |