Worde ys commyn to lovly Londone
Till the fourth Harry our kyng,
That lord Persè, leyff-tennante of the Merchis,
He lay slayne Chyviat within.
"God have merci on his soll," sayd kyng Harry,
"Good lord, yf thy will it be!
I have a hondrith captayns in Ynglonde," he sayd,
As good as ever was hee:
But Persè, and I brook my lyffe,
Thy deth well quyte shall be."
As our noble kyng made his a-vowe,
Lyke a noble prince of renowen,
For the deth of the lord Persè,
He dyd the battel of Hombyll-down
Wher syx and thritte Skottish knyghtes
On a day wear beaten down:
Glendale glytteryde on ther armor bryght,
Over castill, towar, and town.
This was the hontynge off the Cheviat;
That tear begane this spurn:
Old men that knowen the grownde well yenoughe,
Call it the Battell of Otterburn.
At Otterburn began this spurne
Uppon a monnyn day:
Ther was the dougghte Doglas slean,
The Persè never went away.
Ther was never a tym on the March partes
Sen the Doglas and the Persè met,
But yt was marvele, and the redde blude ronne not,
As the reane doys in the stret.
Jhesue Christ our balys bete,
And to the blys us brynge!
Thus was the hountynge of the Chevyat:
God send us all good ending!
***The style of this and the following ballad is uncommonly rugged and uncouth,
owing to their being writ in the very coarsest and broadest northern dialect.
The battle of Hombyll-down, or Humbledon, was fought Sept. 14, 1402 (anno
3 Hen. IV.), wherein the English, under the command of the Earl of Northumberland,
and his son Hotspur, gained a complete victory over the Scots. The village of
Humbledon is one mile northwest from Wooler, in Northumberland. The battle was
fought in the field below the village, near the present turnpike road, in a spot called
ever since Red-Riggs. Humbledon is in Glendale Ward, a district so named in this
county, and mentioned above in ver. 163.