_Gin_, if. _Burn_, brook. _Kale_, broth. _Fend_, sustain. _Bent_, open
field. _Petitions_, tents (pavilions). _Branking_, prancing.
_Wargangs_, wagons. _Ayont_, beyond. _Hewmont_, helmet. _Smakkit_,
smote. _Bracken_, fern.


THE HUNTING OF THE CHEVIOT. After Hearne, who first printed it from a
manuscript in the Ashmolean collection at Oxford. It was next printed
in the Reliques, under title of Chevy-Chase,--a title now reserved for
the later and inferior broadside version which was singularly popular
throughout the seventeenth century and is still better known than this
far more spirited original. "With regard to the subject of this
ballad,"--to quote from Bishop Percy,--"although it has no countenance
from history, there is room to think it had originally some foundation
in fact. It was one of the laws of the Marches, frequently renewed
between the nations, that neither party should hunt in the other's
borders, without leave from the proprietors or their deputies. There
had long been a rivalship between the two martial families of Percy
and Douglas, which, heightened by the national quarrel, must have
produced frequent challenges and struggles for superiority, petty
invasions of their respective domains, and sharp contests for the
point of honour; which would not always be recorded in history.
Something of this kind, we may suppose, gave rise to the ancient
ballad of the Hunting o' the Cheviat. 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. Douglas would not fail to
resent the insult, and endeavour to repel the intruders by force; this
would naturally produce a sharp conflict between the two parties;
something of which, it is probable, did really happen, though not