Another beautiful hare hunting song. This one appeared in Sam Henry’s Songs of the People, and comes from Ulster.
On the 20th of January and in the 70th year,
The morning being beautiful, charming, bright and clear,
I being disturbed by dreams as I lay in my den,
I dreamed of heathery mountain, high rock and low glen.
Chorus (repeated after each verse):
To my hark, tallyho! Hark over yon brow.
“She’s over,” cries the huntsman, “See, yonder she’ll go.”
As I sat in my form for to view the plains round
I being trembling and shaking for fear of the hounds
And seeing no danger appearing to me
I quickly walked out to the top of the slee.
Chorus
They hunted me up and they hunted me down;
At the loop of the burn they did me surround.
When up come the huntsman to end all the strife,
He says, “Leave the hare down and give her play for her life.”
Chorus
Bad luck to all sportsmen, to Bowman and Ringwood,
They sprinkled the plain with my innocent blood.
They let Reynard go free, that cunning old fox,
That ate up all the chickens, fat hens and game cocks.
Chorus
It’s now I’m for dying, but I know not the crime;
To the value of sixpence I ne’er robbed mankind.
I never was given to rob or to steal,
All the harm that ever I done was crop the heads of green kale.
SongLore 
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