A-Hunting We Will Go

This item is part of the I. G. Greer Folksong Collection which consists of more than 300 individual song titles and their variants as collected by Isaac Garfield Greer (1881-1967) from informants, primarily in Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga counties. The collection includes manuscripts, typescript transcriptions produced by Dr. Greer’s clerical staff, and handwritten musical notations. Songs range from traditional Child Ballads, traditional English and Scottish ballads as well as their American variants, to 19th century popular music to musical compositions of local origin.

English poetry--18th century

Fox hunting--Songs and music

Henry Fielding, 1707-1754

AC.113 Isaac Garfield (I.G.) Greer Papers and Recordings

W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University

Greer, I. G. (Isaac Garfield), 1881-1967

PDF

English

Text

The Dusky Night

The dusky night rides down the sky,
And ushers in the morn,
The hounds all join in jovial cry,
The huntsman winds his horn.
And a hunting we will go,
And a hunting we will go,
And a hunting we will go,
And a hunting we will go,

The wife around her husband throws,
Her arms to make him stay,
My dear it rains it hails it blows,
You cannot hunt to day.
Yet a hunting we will go, etc.

Sly Reynard now like lightening flies,
And sweeps across the vale,
But when the hounds too near he espies,
He drops his bushy tail.
Then a hunting we will go, etc.

Fond echoes seems to like the sport,
And joins the jovial cry,
The woods and hills the sound retort,
And music fills the sky.
Then a hunting we will go, etc.

At last his strength to faintness worn,
Poor Reynard ceases flight,
Then hungry homeward we return,
To feast a way the night.
And a drinking we will go, etc.

Ye jovial hunters in the morn,
Prepare then for the chase,
Rise at the sounding of the horn,
And health with sport embrace.
When a hunting we will go, etc.

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