Chevy Chase- Galloway (OK-AL-SC) pre1931 Moores
[From Moores; Ballads and Folk Songs of the Southwest; 1964. Their notes follow.
The date when his ballad was collected is unknown but it was after 1931. It's not clear when Galloway learned this but it was certainly before 1931 unless it was from print. Galloway was from Alabama and moved to Oklahoma in 1931. His parents were from South Carolina, where his grandparents had settled when they came from England. It was recited, not sung.
R. Matteson 2015]
34 The Hunting of the Cheviot
"'THE Hunting of the Cheviot' [Child, No. 162] was an old and popular song at the middle of the sixteenth century," writes Child in III, 303. The ballad describes the Battle of Otterburn, which was fought by the English and the Scots on August 19, 1388, under the leadership of Henry Percy, Duke of Northumberland, and William Douglas, Earl of Angus. Although outnumbered three to one, the Scots won the day and celebrated the victory with song, first in the ballad The Battle of Otterburn (Child, No. 161), then in the superior ballad The Hunting of the Cheviot. For references, see Barry, Eckstorm, and Smyth, 243-49;
Davis, 416-18; Journal, vol. XVIII, 294 (Barry), vol. XXX, 323; and Percy, I, 19-35.
Chevy Chase, recited by G. W. Galloway, Bristow.
God prosper long our noble king,
Our lives and safety all;
A woeful hunting once there was
In Chevy Chase befall.
To drive the deer with hound and horn,
Earl Percy went his way.
The child may rue that is unborn
The hunting of that day.
The chiefest harts in Chevy Chase
Earl Percy vowed he'd take;
These tidings to Earl Douglas sped
In Scotland where he lay.
He sent Earl Percy present word
He would prevent his sport.
The English earl no fear possessed
Did to the woods report.
Full fifteen hundred bowmen bold
Made chase the fallow deer;
The good greyhounds they swiftly ran
Before daylight appeared.
Lo! Yonder does Earl Douglas come
With men in armor bright;
Full twenty hundred Scottish men
Went marching into sight.
"Show me," he said, "whose men you be
That hunt so boldly here."
"We are Englishmen," Earl Percy said,
"And come to chase the deer."
Then Douglas swore a mighty oath,
And in a rage did say:
"I know thee well, you English earl,
Ready your men this day."
"Lord Douglas, let us in battle try,
And save our men betide
And cursed be he, Earl Percy said,
Who may this suit deny."
But Wirthington, a squire's son,
Protested of that way.
Into the thickest of the fray
Both armies locked that day.
The fight it lasted from high noonday
Till setting of the sun;
Oh, God! It was a piteous sight
Ere the battle was done.
Of fifteen hundred Englishmen,
Went home but fifty-three;
Outnumbered three to one, still
The Scotsmen won the day.