'O Christ! my very heart doth bleed A knight amongst the Scots there was, Which saw earl Douglas die, Who straight in wrath did vow rèvenge Upon the earl Percy. Sir Hugh Montgomery he was call'd; Who, with a spear most bright, Well mounted on a gallant steed, Ran fiercely through the fight: And pass'd the English archers all, With such a vehement force and might The spear went through the other side A large cloth-yard, and more. So thus did both these nobles die, He had a bow bent in his hand, Against Sir Hugh Montgomery The grey-goose wing that was thereon So right the shaft he set, In his heart-blood was wet. This fight did last from break of day For when they rung the evening-bell, With the earl Percy there was slain Sir Robert Ratcliff, and sir John, And with sir George, and good sir James, For Witherington needs must I wail, And with earl Douglas there was slain Sir Charles Currèl, that from the field Sir Charles Murrél of Ratcliffe too, Sir David Lamb, so well esteem'd, And the lord Maxwell, in like wise, Of fifteen hundred Englishmen Next day did many widows come, They wash'd their wounds in brinish tears, Their bodies, bathed in purple blood, They bore with them away; They kiss'd them dead a thousand times, When they were clad in clay. This news was brought to Edinburgh, 'O heavy news!' king James did say ; I have not any captain more Like tidings to king Henry came, Was slain in Chevy Chase. 'Now God be with him,' said our king, 'Sith 'twill no better be; I trust I have within my realm 'Yet shail not Scot nor Scotland say, And be revenged on them all For brave lord Percy's sake.' This vow full well the king perform'd, In one day fifty knights were slain, And of the rest, of small account, Thus ended the hunting of Chevy Chase, God save the king, and bless the land And grant henceforth that foul debate Richard Sheale. RICHARD PLANTAGENET. 'THE work is done, the structure is complete.Long may this produce of my humble toil Uninjur'd stand: and echo long repeat, Round the dear walls, Benevolence and Moyle*!' *Sir Thomas Moyle, possessor of Eastwell-place, in the county of Kent, in the year 1546, gave Richard Plantagenet, who for many years had been his chief bricklayer, a piece of So Richard spake, as he survey'd The dwelling he had rais'd; And, in the fullness of his heart, His generous patron prais'd. Him Moyle o'erheard, whose wand'ring step The workman's mien he ey'd intent, 'My mind, I see, misgave me not, 'To drudgery and servile toil, By birth and blood, but thereto wrought Is it not so? That crimson glow, And down-cast eye, true answer give, 'Oft have I mark'd thee, when unseen ground, and permission to build himself a house thereon. The poem opens, just when Richard is supposed to have finished this task. Eastwell-place hath since been in the pos session of the earls of Winchelsea. |