A Bundle of Ballads

A hunting horn sounds across the Cheviot hills—and by noon a hundred harts lie dead, while Percy and Douglas ride toward each other with armies behind them. The ballad warns that children yet unborn will rue this day.

Henry Morley’s collection gathers English and Scottish ballads shaped by generations of oral storytelling, from old tales of love and loyalty to songs of battle and loss. In “Chevy Chase,” a hunt across the border becomes a clash of honour: Percy has vowed to take the finest deer, and Douglas will not let him go unchallenged. As arrows fly and the two lords meet, a quarrel over the chase threatens to consume both their companies. What will this day leave behind but grief—and who will remember it?

With centuries of literature, it's inevitable that some will fall through the cracks. We hunt down public domain works and restore them so they're not lost to the world.

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