A hunting song from Joseph Taylor. This was on one of the seven discs he made for the Gramophone Company. Grainger had recorded one stanza in 1906. It is interesting to note that Mr. Taylor's memory of texts was not his strong point, and in many instances he could recall few, if any, verses to a song. Fortunately this failing did not seem to extend to his memory for tunes, which, almost without exception, are among the finest ever recovered in English tradition.
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Oh, near Howden town, near Howden town, as I have heard 'em tell,
There once was a white hare, she used there to dwell,
She'd been hunted by beagle dogs and greyhounds so fair
But never a one amongst 'em could come near this old white hare,
To me right fol-the-diddle-lol the right fol-the-day.
When they came to the place where the white hare used to lie,
The uncoupled the beagles, and beginning for to try,
The uncoupled the beagles and they beat the bushes round,
But there was never a white hare, not there to be found.
Says Jim Smith, the huntsman, to Tom the whipper-in,
"Go down to yonder fern side to see if she be in."
Well, at that she gave a jump, my boys, and away she did run,
And yonder she is going, don't you see her, gentlemen?
Well the footmen they did run, and the horsemen they did ride,
Such holloing and shouting there was on every side,
Such holloing and shouting I never before did know,
And all the men were crying, "Tally Ho! Tally Ho!"
There were twenty good beagle dogs that caused her to die,
There wasn't a one amongst 'em above a foot high,
The number of these beagle dogs there never could be found,
And never better hunting upon our English ground.
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