And past the English archers all, And through Earl Percy's body then With such vehement force and might The staff ran through the other side So thus did both these nobles die, He had a bow bent in his hand, An arrow of a cloth yard long Against Sir Hugh Mountgomery The gray goose wing that was thereon This fight did last from break of day For when they rung the evening-bell, With stout Earl Percy there were slain Sir Robert Ratcliff, and Sir John, Sir James, that bold baròn. And with Sir George and stout Sir James, For Witherington my heart is woe He knelt and fought on his knee.* *This stanza is from the old ballad, as being preferable in all respects to the corresponding one in the new: 'For Witherington I needs must wail, As one in doleful dumps, For when his legs were smitten off, He fought upon his stumps.' And with Earl Douglas there were slain Sir Charles Murray, that from the field Sir Charles Murray of Ratcliff, too, Sir David Lamb, so well esteemed, And the Lord Maxwell in like case Of fifteen hundred Englishmen, Next day did many widows come, They washed their wounds in brinish tears, Their bodies, bathed in purple blood, They kissed them dead a thousand times, The news was brought to Edinburgh, 'O heavy news,' King James did say, I have not any captain more Like tidings to King Henry came That Percy of Northumberland 'Now God be with him,' said our king, I trust I have within my realm Yet shall not Scots or Scotland say For brave Earl Percy's sake.' This vow full well the king performed In one day fifty knights were slain, And of the rest, of small account, Thus endeth the hunting of Chevy-Chase, God save the king, and bless this land, And grant, henceforth, that foul debate *The popular_ballad of Chevy-Chase, here reprinted, is believed to have been written about the year 1600; but it was not an original composition. There was an older ballad of somewhat greater length, and more rudely constructed, as might be expected in a composition of earlier age. They are both printed in Percy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. It is now believed that these ballads have no more than a foundation in fact. There certainly existed in the fourteenth century a strong feeling of rivalry between the English Earl of Northumberland and the Scottish Earl of Douglas, and this had in general ample occasion for display in the wars then carried on between the two countries. In 1388, during the reigns of Richard II. of England and Robert III. of Scotland, the Scots under Douglas invaded and ravaged the English border. They were met at Otterbourne by an English party under Henry Percy (surnamed Hotspur), son of the Earl of Northumberland, when a keen contest took place, which resulted in the captivity of Percy by the Scots, who, however, had their triumph saddened by the death of their brave commander. The known incidents of this fight furnish the chief materials of the ballad, both in its ancient and comparatively modern form: but here a difficulty meets us. There is no historical record of such an occasion for a battle as the hunting of Cheviot holds forth. It is nevertheless not improbable that, amidst the mutual jealousies of these great lords, a Percy might indulge in such a freak as hunting upon the grounds of his enemy, the Douglas, and that a battle might be the consequence; and indeed a fight did take place between these lords at Pepperden, not far from the Cheviot Hills, in 1436. This might be the battle which the poet meant to describe; but, writing perhaps a hundred years after even that later incident, he might easily confound the two conflicts, and give the transactions of the one in connection with the occasion of the other. The modern version of Chevy-Chase is mainly an improvement upon the original; but it is scarcely so good in a few particular passages, and in one the meaning of the old writer has been mistaken. This ballad has for ages been admired by the learned and refined, as well as by the common people. Chevy-Chase, the scene of the ballad, was the extensive hunting-ground afforded by the Cheviot Hills between Scotland and England-then partially covered with wood, and stocked with deer and roe, though now bare, and devoted to sheep-pasture alone. THE BEGGAR'S DAUGHTER OF BETHNAL-GREEN.* FIT FIRST. IT was a blind beggar had long lost his sight, And though she was of favour most fair, Wherefore in great sorrow fair Bessie did say : Then Bessie that was of beauty so bright, *This popular English ballad is believed to have been written in the reign of Elizabeth. Like almost every other ballad which has been preserved principally by tradition, there are various versions of it, all less or more differing from each other. The version we have adopted is that which has appeared in The Book of British Ballads, a work of great elegance and taste, edited by Mr S. C. Hall, having been revised by him from the version in Dr Percy's Reliques of English Poetry and a black-letter copy preserved in the British Museum. The ballad in the British Museum is entitled The Rarest Ballad that ever was seen of the Blind Beggar's Daughter of Bednal-Green. Printed by and for W. Ouley; and are to be sold by C. Bates at the sign of the Sun and Bible in Pye Corner. With reference to one of the main events in the ballad, history mentions that at the decisive battle of Evesham, fought August 4, 1265, when Simon de Montfort, the great Earl of Leicester, was slain at the head of the barons, his eldest son, Henry, fell by his side; and in consequence of that defeat his whole family sunk for ever, the king bestowing their great honours and possessions on his second son, Edmund Earl of Lancaster. The angel,' a coin alluded to in the ballad, was of gold, and of the value of about ten shillings. It received its name from having on one side a representation of archangel Michael killing the dragon. She went till she came to Stratford-le-Bow; She kept on her journey until it was day, She had not been there a month to an end, Four suitors at once unto her did go; The first of them was a gallant young knight, A merchant of London, whose wealth was not small, Then Bessie she sighed, and thus she did say: To every one this answer she made; But where dwells thy father, my pretty Bessie?' 'My father,' she said, 'is soon to be seen; |