| Author | Topic: Add: The Fox Hunt | |
| Ed | Posted - 08 Dec 02 - 11:49 pm | |
Fox Hunt, The You gentlemen of high renown Come listen unto me That take delight in foxhunting By every degree A story now I'll tell to you Concerning of a fox O'er Royston Hills and mountains high And over stony rocks Old Reynold being in his den And hearing of these hounds Which made him for to prick his ears And tread upon the ground Methink me hear some jubal hounds Pressing upon my life Before that they do come to me I'll tread upon the ground We hunted full four hours or more By parishes sixteen We hunted full four hours or more And came by Barkworth Green Oh if you'll only spare my life I promise and fulfil I'll touch no more your feathered fowl Nor lambs in yonder fold Old Reynold beat and out of breath And dreading of these hounds Thinking that he might lose his life Before these jubal hounds Oh here's adieu to duck and geese Likewise young lamb also They've got old Reynold by the brush And will not let him go Source: Kennedy, D (1987) Martin Carthy: A Guitar in Folk Music. Petersham, New Punchbowl Music Notes: From the sleeve notes of See How It Runs by Brass Monkey (Topic Records, 1983) Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams in Norfolk. The tone of voice, which quietly and unsentimentally insists on things balanced and which resonates in much of traditional song, is about as consonant as a dull thud with that of a farming industry that views all undomesticated creatures as vermin and treats them as such, casting a hunting fraternity ludicrously as conservator of wildlife (so that it can, of course, have something to hunt) - the implications of which are as unpalatable as they are mind-boggling. Database entry is here | ||
| Watson | Posted - 13 Dec 02 - 12:54 pm | |
Just me quibbling again, but isn't it usually Reynard, not Reynold? | ||
| dmcg | Posted - 13 Dec 02 - 01:39 pm | |
I remember reading some decades ago that "Reynard" was from the French and "Reynold" from the English. I don't know whether it is true or even relevant ... | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 13 Dec 02 - 02:18 pm | |
Roud 190. Found mainly in the South of England, though not unknown in Yorkshire. The Copper Family have a particularly well-known version. The set here was noted by Ralph Vaughan Williams from Stephen Poll (or Pole), at Tilney St. Lawrence, Norfolk, January 7th 1905. It was first published in The Journal of the Folk Song Society, vol.II, issue 7, 1905; but only the tune was given. The text above seems to have been retrieved from his MS collection, and published with the tune in Imogen Holst and Ursula Vaughan Williams, A Yacre of Land: Sixteen Folk-Songs from the Manuscript Collection of Ralph Vaughan Williams, London: Oxford University Press, 1961. Mr. Poll, incidentally, was also a fiddle player, and used to play for dances at Lynn Fair. He was 80 when Vaughan Williams met him. Many country singers, being not necessarily familiar with the word Reynard, commonly sang it as Reynolds in this and in other songs. | ||
| Ed | Posted - 13 Dec 02 - 07:55 pm | |
Thanks, Malcolm. Do the original manuscripts use 'The Fox Hunt' as the title? I only know this from the revival recordings. The Young Tradition and Brass Monkey both use that, but Fairport Convention use 'Reynard the Fox' I've put 'Reynard the Fox' as an alternative title in the database entry as users may well search for that. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 13 Dec 02 - 08:42 pm | |
Mr Poll's tune was printed in the Journal with no title; as a "second version" of a set noted in Cornwall as Huntsman's Song. The set as it appeared in A Yacre of Land was entitled The Foxhunt. Other versions have appeared as Bold Reynard (but more often as Bold Reynolds) and Gentlemen of High Renown. Fairport have confused the issue, as usual; Reynard the Fox is a completely different song. | ||