In modern orthography, it would appear thus :—

Summer is i-comen* in!

Loud sing, cuckoo !

Groweth seed, and bloweth mead,
And springeth the wood, now.

-Sing cuckoo !

Ewe bleateth after lamb,
Loweth after calf cow:
Bullock starteth,

Buck verteth,t

Merry sing, cuckoo !
-Cuckoo, cuckoo !-

Well sing'st thou, cuckoo !

Nor swik thou never now.

ED.

* i. e. Come.

+ "Goes to harbour in the fern.". RITSON. Perhaps from vert, green.-ED.

Be silent.

CHEVY-CHASE.

I never heard the old song of Piercy 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?- SIR PHILIP SIDNEY.(Quoted by Addison, Spec. 70, 74).

Ir was not known to Mr. Addison that Sir Philip had never seen the present ballad, the style of which is no rougher or less ornamented than his own; and is, as Addison justly observes, quite equal to Queen Elizabeth's days. The more ancient ballad, which from its general appearance and indications, Dr. Percy considers to be full as old as the reign of Henry VI. (i. e. probably about 1440 or 1450), is published in the " Reliques," vol. i., 1. The Editor has subjoined some of the most prominent instances of difference between the two.

Another ancient ballad, materially connected with the plot and situation of the present, exists, under the title of the "Battle of Otterbourne," Reliques, i., 18;- and to this the evidence of history affords, in a greater degree, the credit of veracity; such a skirmish having undoubtedly taken place, and having been recorded by all our best chroniclers, and very circumstantially by Froissart. In this, Earl Douglas invades that part of Northumberland called Bamboroughshire, and lays waste the country to the walls of New Castell, wherein lies Sir Henry Percy, called Hotspur: a parley takes place at the walls; they agree to meet at a future day, and at a more convenient spot. An engagement accordingly takes place, in which Douglas is killed, and Hotspur taken prisoner. This is, in brief, a summary of the occurrences of this ancient poem; and such, with some slight variations, are recorded in history at the date of 1388. Dr. Percy conceives the story of the ballad of Chevy Chase to be true, as far as relates to the hunting, &c.; but that the concluding events are borrowed by the authors from the battle of Otterbourne. The precise date, therefore, of the occurrences on which the story of Chevy Chase is founded, is uncertain. Dr. Percy thinks they may have been prior to the other, and that the battle of Otterbourne was provoked by some such affront as the expedition of Percy, described in this ballad.

:

the

The Cheviots are a range of hills between Northumberland and Roxburghshire the spiral summit of one of the principal is considered to be as high as any mountain in England. At the foot of these is a long track of flat and marshy ground, called the Cheviot Moors. All this country was included in the district belonging to both kingdoms, styled the Marches," and sometimes Debateable Ground," from its being a constant scene of dispute and hostility. It was one of the laws of these Marches, frequently renewed between the two nations, that neither party should hunt in the borders of the other without leave; and in time of peace, the borderers on both sides were accustomed, in the autumn of the year, to send to the Lord Warden of the opposite border, for leave to hunt within his bounds. But if they ventured to do this without permission asked, this official was always prompt to resent the insult offered. We have only, then, to suppose that Earl Douglas was the Lord Warden of the Scottish Marches, and which is actually declared in the older ballad; and then there will remain nothing unexplained for the full understanding of this celebrated legend.

GOD prosper long our noble king,
Our lives and safeties all;

A woeful hunting once there did
In Chevy-Chace befal:

* The title of the old ballad is, "The Hunting at the Cheviatt." The style has a more rugged appearance, from its being written in the broadest northern dialect. The first stanza, which has six lines, and the second, run as follows:

The Perse owt of Northombarlond,

And a vowe to God made he,
That he wolde hunt in the mountaynes
Of Cheviat, within days thre,

In the mauger (spite) of doughte Dogles,
And all that ever with him be.

The fattest harts in all Cheviat

He sayd he wold kill, and cary them away:

"Be my feth," sayd the doughte Doglas agen,

"I wyll let (hinder) that hontyng, yf that I may."

From the word "King" at the beginning of this verse, it is probable the composition was in the time of James I. A skirmish took place between the second Earl of Northumberland, son of Hotspur, and Earl William Douglas, of Angus, at a place called Pepperden, near the Cheviot, in 1436, which by some has been supposed to have been the ground-work of Chevy-Chase.

To drive the deer with hound and horn

Earl Percy took his

way:

The child may rue that is unborn
The hunting of that day. *

The stout Earl of Northumberland
A vow to God did make,
His pleasure in the Scottish, woods
Three summer's days to take;

The chiefest harts in Chevy-Chace
To kill and bear away.—
The tidings to Earl Douglas came
In Scotland, where he lay;

Who sent Earl Percy present word
He would prevent his sport.
The English Earl, not fearing that,
Did to the woods resort,

With fifteen hundred bowmen bold;
All chosen men of might,

Who knew full well, in time of need,
To aim their shafts aright.

The gallant greyhounds swiftly ran,
To chace the fallow deer:

On Monday they began to hunt,

Ere day-light did appear;

And long before high noon they had

A hundred fat bucks slain;

典 "This way of considering the misfortunes which this battle would bring on posterity, not only on those who were born immediately after the battle, and lost their fathers in it, but on those also who perished in future battles, which took their rise from this quarrel of the two Earls, is wonderfully beautiful, and conformable to the way of thinking among the ancient poets."-ADDISON.

Then, having dined, the drovers went
To rouse the deer again.

The bowmen mustered on the hills,

Well able to endure;

Their backsides all, with special care,
That day were guarded sure.

The hounds ran swiftly through the woods
The nimble deer to take;

And with their cries the hills and dales
An echo shrill did make.

Lord Percy to the quarry went, †
To view the slaughtered deer;
Quoth he, Earl Douglas promised
This day to meet me here:

If that I thought he would not come,
No longer would I stay,—
With that a brave young gentleman
Thus to the Earl did say :

Lo! yonder doth Earl Douglas come,
His men in armour bright;
Full twenty-hundred Scottish spears,

All marching in our sight;

All men of pleasant Tivydale, ‡

Fast by the river Tweed.—

Then cease your sport, Earl Percy said,

And take your bows with speed:

* In the original, it is said, the huntsmen " blew a mort,"--an old term for the notes on the horn calling back the dogs after the death of the deer. + This the Editor believes to be a term for any slaughtered game; or here perhaps for the place in which they were stowed.

Teviotdale, one of the three divisions of Roxburghshire, the others being Liddesdale and Eskdale. The part of Northumberland adjoining the Cheviot had also three divisions,-Islandshire, from Holy Island, or Lindisfarn;