The Staghunting Song of Exmoor

The Forest above and the Combe below,
On a bright September morn!
He's the soul of a clod who thanks not God
That ever his body was born!
So hurry along, the stag's afoot,
The Master's up and away!
Halloo! Halloo! we'll follow it through
From Bratton to Porlock Bay!

So hurry along, the stag's afoot,
The Master's up and away!
Halloo! Halloo! we'll follow it through
From Bratton to Porlock Bay!

Hark to the tufters' challenge true,
'Tis a note that the red-deer knows!
His courage awakes; his covert he breaks,
And up for the moor he goes!
He's all his rights and seven on top,
His eye's the eye o a king,
And he'll beggar the pride of some that ride
Before he leaves the ling!

Chorus

Here comes Donald bringing the pack,
Steady! he's laying them on!
By the sound of their chime you may tell that its time
To harden your heart and be gone.
Nightacott, Naracott, Hunnacott's passed,
Right for the North they race;
He's leading them straight for Blackmoor Gate,
And he's setting a pounding pace!

Chorus

We're running him now on a breast-high scent,
But he leaves us standing still;
When we swing round by Wistland Pound
He's far up Challacombe Hill.
The pack are a string of struggling ants,
The quarry's a dancing midge,
They're trying their reins on the edge of the Chains
While he's on Cheriton Ridge.

Chorus

He's gone by Kittuck and Lucott Moor,
He's gone by Woodcock's Ley;
By the little white town he's turned him down
And he's running by open sea.
So hurry along, we'll both be in,
The crowd are a parish away!
We're a field of two, and we've followed it through
From Bratton to Porlock Bay!

So hurry along, we'll both be in,
The crowd are a parish away!
We're a field or two, and we've followed it through
From Bratton to Porlock Bay!