John Peel was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 huntsman

Fox hunting

Fox hunting is an activity involving the tracking, chase, and sometimes killing of a fox, traditionally a red fox, by trained foxhounds or other scent hounds, and a group of followers led by a master of foxhounds, who follow the hounds on foot or on horseback.Fox hunting originated in its current...

 who is the subject of the nineteenth century song

Song

In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

 D'ye ken John Peel - "ken" being a dialectical form of "know" used in Scotland and the north of England.

Peel's life

Peel was born at Park End, near Caldbeck

Caldbeck

Caldbeck is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Allerdale, Cumbria, England. Historically within Cumberland, the village had 714 inhabitants according to the census of 2001. It lies on the northern edge of the Lake District. The nearest town is Wigton, 6 miles north east of the village...

, Cumberland; his family moved a short time after to the Greenrigg farm. He was baptised on 24 September 1777, but most sources suggest he was born the previous year. Peel married in 1797 to Mary White. Some of the White family's property at Ruthwaite (near Ireby

Ireby, Cumbria

Ireby is a village in Cumbria, England, with a population of over 300.Ireby forms part of the civil parish of Ireby and Uldale; for local government purposes it is in the ward of Boltons, under the authority of Allerdale borough council. Historically it was in the county of Cumberland – since...

) passed into his hands, which secured Peel a comfortable income. However, he was, as many of his friends admitted, prone to dissipation and he devoted himself primarily to hunting. Peel was a farmer by profession, and kept a pack of fox hounds. Peel hunted pine marten

Pine Marten

The European Pine Marten , known most commonly as the pine marten in Anglophone Europe, and less commonly also known as Pineten, baum marten, or sweet marten, is an animal native to Northern Europe belonging to the mustelid family, which also includes mink, otter, badger, wolverine and weasel. It...

s and hare

Hare

Hares and jackrabbits are leporids belonging to the genus Lepus. Hares less than one year old are called leverets. Four species commonly known as types of hare are classified outside of Lepus: the hispid hare , and three species known as red rock hares .Hares are very fast-moving...

s, in addition to foxes. By the end of his life (13 November 1854, most likely due to a fall while hunting) he had accrued large debts, which his friends helped him pay off.

John Peel did occasionally ride to hounds, his mount being a 14 hand dun cross bred gelding named 'Dunny'. 'Dunny' would often be abandoned for hours during the hunt when the going became too rough to ride over; standing patiently waiting for his master to return.
John's niece Nancy Wilson (who was brought up in the Peel household) was also known to hunt with her Uncle John on horseback, 'mounted on a grey pony and garbed in a green habit', meaning she rode side-saddle, which was the proper custom for ladies at the time.
But John did on many occasions follow the old Cumberland custom, known as 'Chasing the Ace', chasing after the hounds on foot.

Peel became a moderately well-known figure, owing to the song written about him. Some of the local gentry, after his death, were glad to take on his sons as servants, and the story of Peel romanticized hunting activities for many. He died in 1854 and is buried in the churchyard of St Kentigern's Church, Caldbeck

St Kentigern's Church, Caldbeck

St Kentigern's Church, Caldbeck, , is in the village of Caldbeck, Cumbria, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Carlisle, the archdeaconry of Carlisle and the diocese of Carlisle. The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building...

.

Peel Region

Peel Region

Peel Region may refer to:* Peel , a region south of Perth, Western Australia* Regional Municipality of Peel, Ontario...

, the equivalent of a county in Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 may be named after him.

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

John Woodcock Graves

John Woodcock Graves was a composer and author of "D'ye ken John Peel".Graves was born in Wigton, Cumberland, England, the son of Joseph Graves, a plumber, glazier and ironmonger and his wife Ann, née Matthews. His father died when he was nine years old and he had comparatively little education...

, 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.

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.

Additional verses

Verses 2-5 in Coward's version:

D’ye ken that bitch whose tongue was death?

D’ye ken her sons of peerless faith?

D’ye ken that fox, with his last breath

Curs’d them all as he died in the morning?

For the sound of his horn, etc.

Yes I ken John Peel and Ruby too

Ranter and Royal and Bellman as true,

From the drag to the chase, from the chase to the view

From a view to the death in the morning

For the sound of his horn, etc.

And I’ve followed John Peel both often and far,

O’er the rasper fence and the gate and the bar,

From low Denton Holme up to Scratchmere Scar,

Where we vie for the brush in the morning

For the sound of his horn, etc.

Then here's to John Peel with my heart and soul

Come fill – fill to him another strong bowl,

And we'll follow John Peel through fair and through foul

While we’re waked by his horn in the morning.

For the sound of his horn, etc.

Alternative versions

As is common with songs often sung from memory, this has been recorded with other verses and minor differences in lyrics, such as in the third verse: From the drag to the chase, from the chase to the view and From a view to a death in the morning:

Yes, I ken John Peel and his Ruby, too!

Ranter and Ringwood, Bellman so true!

From a find to a check, from a check to a view,

From a view to a kill in the morning.

For the sound of his horn, etc.

Coward's version of the last line was used for Matt Cartmill's book, A View to a Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature Through History. The alternative version was used as a title to the short story "From a View to A Kill", found in the Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming

Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...

 collection of short stories, For Your Eyes Only. This was in turn shortened to A View to a Kill

A View to a Kill

A View to a Kill is the fourteenth spy film of the James Bond series, and the seventh and last to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from Ian Fleming's short story "From a View to a Kill", the film is the fourth Bond film after The Spy Who Loved...

, when applied to the fourteenth James Bond movie.

This verse was not in Coward's version:

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

He liv'd at Troutbeck once on a day;

Now he has gone far, away;

We shall ne'er hear his voice in the morning.

For the sound of his horn, etc.

A number of parodies also exist. One version broadcast on I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again parodied the British Radio DJ John Peel

John Peel

John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...

D'ye ken John Peel with his voice so grey?

He sounds as if he's far far away;

He sends you to sleep at the end of the day;

'til you're woken up by Tony Blackburn in the morning.

Regimental march

"John Peel" was one of the quick marches of the King's Own Royal Border Regiment before it was merged with the Queen's Lancashire Regiment and The Kings Regiment to become the Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.

"John Peel" is the authorized march

Authorized marches of the Canadian Forces

The following is a list of the notable authorized marches for various organizations of the Canadian Forces. The first march listed is the march most commonly performed for that organization on parade; it is commonly referred to simply as that organization's "march" or "march past"...

 of The Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Regiment)

The Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Regiment)

The Lorne Scots is a Primary Reserve infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. It is part of Land Force Central Area's 32 Canadian Brigade Group.The sub-units of the Lorne Scots are situated in the following armouries:...

 and The Ontario Regiment (RCAC)

The Ontario Regiment (RCAC)

The Ontario Regiment is a Primary Reserve armoured reconnaissance regiment of the Canadian Forces Land Force Command. The unit is based in downtown Oshawa, Ontario...

 of the Canadian Forces

Canadian Forces

The Canadian Forces , officially the Canadian Armed Forces , are the unified armed forces of Canada, as constituted by the National Defence Act, which states: "The Canadian Forces are the armed forces of Her Majesty raised by Canada and consist of one Service called the Canadian Armed Forces."...

.