JOHN PEEL
This tune is said to be derived from an old Scottish song called Bonnie Annie, or Whar Wad Bonnie Annie Lie, which in turn is said to be based on a tune called Red House, that appeared in John Playfordís The Dancing Master published in 1695. The tune shown here is indeed similar to the last part of Playford's Red House.
John Peel was apparently a real person. Some sources claim he was a simple Cumbrian farmer who kept a pack of exceptional foxhounds, while others assert that he was an former military officer who was an avid fox hunter. Most sources agree that John Peel lived in Cumbria in the north of England during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and these words, penned by John Woodcock Graves, date from the 1820s.
John Peel (Traditional)
Do ye ken John Peel with his coat so gay?
Do ye ken John Peel at the break of day?
Do ye ken John Peel when heís far, far away,
With his hounds and his horn in the morning.íTwas the sound of his horn brought me from my bed,
And the cry of his hounds has me oftimes led,
For Peelís view holloo would wake the dead,
Or a fox from his lair in the morning.
Do ye ken that hound whose voice is death?
Do ye ken her sons of peerless faith?
Do ye ken that a fox with his last breath?
Cursed them all as he died in the morning?íTwas the sound of his horn, &c.
Yes, I ken John Peel and auld Ruby, too,
Ranter and Royal and Bellman so true,
From the drag to the chase, from the chase to the view,
From the view to the death in the morning.íTwas the sound of his horn, &c.
And Iíve followed John Peel both often and far,
Oíer the rasper fence and the gate and the bar,
From Low Denton Holme to the Scratchmere Scar,
When we vied for the brush in the morning.íTwas the sound of his horn, &c.
Then hereís to John Peel with my heart and soul,
Come fill, fill to him a brimming bowl,
For weíll follow John Peel thro fair or thro foul,
While weíre waked by his horn in the morning!íTwas the sound of his horn, &c.