72 FOXHUNTING ON LAKELAND FELLS 



following verses, published in the Wigton Adver- 

 tiser : — 



" The horn of the hunter is silent, 



By the banks of the Ellen no more 

 Or in Denton is heard its wild echo. 

 Clear sounding o'er dark Caldew's roar. 



For forty years have we known him — 



' A Cumberland yeoman of old ' — 

 But thrice forty years they shall perish 



Ere the fame of his deeds shall be cold. 



No broadcloth or scarlet adom'd him. 



Or buckskins that rival the snow, 

 But of plain "" Skiddaw gray ' was his raiment, 



He wore it for work, not for show. 



Now, when darkness at night draws her mantle, 



And cold round the fire bids us steal. 

 Our children will say, ' Father, tell us 



Some tales about famous John Peel ! ' 



Then we'll tell them of Ranter and Royal, 



And Briton, and Melody, too, 

 How they rattled their fox around Carrock, 



And pressed him from chase into view.' 



And often from Brayton to Skiddaw, 



Through Isel, Bewaldeth, Whitefiel, 

 We have galloped, like madmen, together, 



And followed the horn of John Peel. 



And tho' we may hunt with another. 

 When the hand of old age we way feel. 



We'll mourn for a sportsman and brother. 

 And remember the days of John Peel." 



The late Sir Wilfrid Lawson also gives a good 

 description of Peel. He says : 



" I have seen John Peel in the flesh, and have 

 hunted with him. He was a tall, bony Cumbrian, 



