John Peel (huntsman) - Lyrics of D'ye Ken John Peel

Lyrics of D'ye Ken John Peel

Note that the title of the song may also be rendered as Do You Ken John Peel and Do Ye Ken John Peel.

The first verse and chorus are the best known:

D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so gay*?

D'ye ken John Peel at the break o' day?

D'ye ken John Peel when he's far, far a-way.

With his hounds and his horn in the morning?

Chorus

For the sound of his horn brought me from my bed,

And the cry of his hounds which he oftime led,

Peel's "View, Halloo!" could awaken the dead,

Or the fox from his lair in the morning.

*Some believe the end of this line to be 'grey', due to the colour of his coat made from local Herdwick wool. The line popularly ends 'gay', as huntsmen other than Peel traditionally wore a brightly coloured, often red coat ("hunting pink").

The words were written by Peel's friend John Woodcock Graves, 1795–1886, in Cumbrian dialect. He tinkered with the words over the years and several different versions are known. The lyrics were rewritten for clarity by one George Coward, a Carlisle bookseller, and approved by Graves for a book of Cumberland songs titled Songs and Ballads of Cumberland published in 1866. Another song written by Graves mentions one of John's brothers, Askew Peel, a horsedealer who also lived in Caldbeck, and who also died in 1854.

The words were set to the tune of a traditional Scottish rant, Bonnie Annie, and the most popular arrangement of it in Victorian times was William Metcalfe's version of 1868. He was a conductor and composer and lay clerk of Carlisle Cathedral, and his more musical arrangement of the traditional melody became popular in London and was widely published. However in 1906 the song was included in The National Song Book with a tune closer to Bonnie Annie and that is the most widely known version today.