Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/1073

 JOHN DAVIDSON

Then the huntsman's horn rang yap, yap yap,

And 'Forwards' we heard the harbourer shout; But 'twas only a brocket that broke a gap In the beechen underwood, driven out, From the underwood antler'd out

By warrant and might of the stag, the stag, The runnable stag, whose lordly mind Was bent on sleep, though beam'd and tined He stood, a runnable stag.

��So we tufted the covert till afternoon

With Tmkerman's Pup and Bell-of-the-North j And hunters were sulky and hounds out of tune Before we tufted the right stag forth, Before we tufted him forth,

The stag of warrant, the wily stag, The runnable stag with hib kingly crop, Brow, bay and tray and three on top, The royal and runnable stag.

��It was Bell-of-the-North and Tinkerman's Pup

That stuck to the scent till the copse was drawn. 'Tally ho! tally ho*' and the hunt was up, The tuftcrs whipp'd and the pack laid on, The resolute pack laid on,

And the stag of warrant away at last, The runnable stag, the same, the same, His hoofs on fire, his horns like flame, A stag, a runnable stag.

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