{"collection":"Northern European Mythology","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/neu/eng/child/ch179.htm","path":"neu/eng/child/ch179.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch179.htm","text":"179A.1 ROOKHOPE stands in a pleasant place,\nIf the false thieves wad let it be;\nBut away they steal our goods apace,\nAnd ever an ill death may they die!\n179A.2 And so is the men of Thirlwa \u2019nd Williehaver,\nAnd all their companies thereabout,\nThat is minded to do mischief,\nAnd at their stealing stands not out.\n179A.3 But yet we will not slander them all,\nFor there is of them good enough;\nIt is a sore consumed tree\nThat on it bears not one fresh bough.\n179A.4 Lord God! is not this a pitiful case,\nThat men dare not drive their goods to t\u2019 fell,\nBut limmer thieves drives them away,\nThat fears neither heaven nor hell?\n179A.5 Lord, send us peace into the realm,\nThat every man may live on his own!\nI trust to God, if it be his will,\nThat Weardale men may never be overthrown.\n179A.6 For great troubles they\u2019ve had in hand,\nWith borderers pricking hither and thither,\nBut the greatest fray that eer they had\nWas with the \u2019Men\u2019 of Thirlwa \u2019nd Williehaver.\n179A.7 They gatherd together so royally,\nThe stoutest men and the best in gear,\nAnd he that rade not on a horse,\nI wat he rade on a weil-fed mear.\n179A.8 So in the morning, before they came out,\nSo well, I wot, they broke their fast;\nIn the [forenoon they came] unto a bye fell,\nWhere some of them did eat their last.\n179A.9 When they had eaten aye and done,\nThey sayd some captains here needs must be:\nThen they choosed forth Harry Corbyl,\nAnd \u2018Symon Fell,\u2019 and Martin Ridley.\n179A.10 Then oer the moss, where as they came,\nWith many a brank and whew,\nOne of them could to another say,\n\u2018I think this day we are men enew.\n179A.11 \u2018For Weardale men is a journey taen;\nThey are so far out-oer yon fell\nThat some of them\u2019s with the two earls,\nAnd others fast in Barnard castell.\n179A.12 \u2018There we shal get gear enough,\nFor there is nane but women at hame;\nThe sorrowful fend that they can make\nIs loudly cries as they were slain.\u2019\n179A.13 Then in at Rookhope-head they came,\nAnd there they thought tul a had their prey,\nBut they were spy\u2019d coming over the Dry Rig,\nSoon upon Saint Nicholas\u2019 day.\n179A.14 Then in at Rookhope-head they came,\nThey ran the forest but a mile;\nThey gatherd together in four hours\nSix hundred sheep within a while.\n179A.15 And horses I trow they gat\nBut either ane or twa,\nAnd they gat them all but ane\nThat belanged to great Rowley.\n179A.16 That Rowley was the first man that did them spy;\nWith that he raised a mighty cry;\nThe cry it came down Rookhope burn,\nAnd spread through Weardale hasteyly.\n179A.17 Then word came to the bailif\u2019s house,\nAt the East Gate, where he did dwell;\nHe was walkd out to the Smale Burns,\nWhich stands above the Hanging Well.\n179A.18 His wife was wae when she heard tell,\nSo well she wist her husband wanted gear;\nShe gard saddle him his horse in haste,\nAnd neither forgot sword, jack, nor spear.\n179A.19 The bailif got wit before his gear came\nThat such news was in the land;\nHe was sore troubled in his heart,\nThat on no earth that he could stand.\n179A.20 His brother was hurt three days before,\nWith limmer thieves that did him prick;\nNineteen bloody wounds lay him upon;\nWhat ferly was\u2019t that he lay sick?\n179A.21 But yet the bailif shrinked nought,\nBut fast after them he did hye,\nAnd so did all his neighbours near,\nThat went to bear him company.\n179A.22 But when the bailiff was gathered,\nAnd all his company,\nThey were numberd to never a man\nBut forty [or] under fifty.\n179A.23 The thieves was numberd a hundred men,\nI wat they were not of the worst\nThat could be choosed out of Thirlwa \u2019nd Williehaver,\n. . . .\n179A.24 But all that was in Rookhope-head,\nAnd all that was i Nuketon Cleugh,\nWhere weardale men oertook the thieves,\nAnd there they gave them fighting eneugh.\n179A.25 So sore they made them fain to flee,\nAs many was \u2018a\u2019\u2019 out of hand,\nAnd, for tul have been at home again,\nThey would have been in iron bands;\n179A.26 And for the space of long seven years,\nAs sore they mighten a had their lives;\nBut there was never one of them\nThat ever thought to have seen their \u2019wives.\u2019\n179A.27 About the time the fray began,\nI trow it lasted but an hour,\nTill many a man lay weaponless,\nAnd was sore wounded in that stour.\n179A.28 Also before that hour was done,\nFour of the thieves were slain,\nBesides all those that wounded were,\nAnd eleven prisoners there was taen.\n179A.29 George Carrick and his brother Edie,\nThem two, I wot, they were both slain;\nHarry Corbyl and Lennie Carrick\nBore them company in their pain.\n179A.30 One of our Weardale men was slain,\nRowland Emerson his name hight;\nI trust to God his soul is well,\nBecause he \u2019Fought\u2019 unto the right.\n179A.31 But thus they sayd: \u2018We\u2019ll not depart\nWhile we have one; speed back again!\u2019\nAnd when they came amongst the dead men,\nThere they found George Carrick slain.\n179A.32 And when they found George Carrick slain,\nI wot it went well near their \u2019Heart;\u2019\nLord, let them never make a better end\nThat comes to play them sicken a \u2019part!\u2019\n179A.33 I trust to God, no more they shal,\nExcept it be one for a great chance;\nFor God wil punish all those\nWith a great heavy pestilence.\n179A.34 Thir limmer thieves, they have good hearts,\nThey nevir think to be oerthrown;\nThree banners against Weardale men they bare,\nAs if the world had been all their own.\n179A.35 Thir Weardale men, they have good hearts,\nThey are as stif as any tree;\nFor, if they\u2019d every one been slain,\nNever a foot back man would flee.\n179A.36 And such a storm amongst them fell\nAs I think you never heard the like,\nFor he that bears his head so high,\nHe oft-times falls into the dyke.\n179A.37 And now I do entreat you all,\nAs many as are persent here,\nTo pray for [the] singer of this song,\nFor he sings to make blithe your cheer.","title":"The Child Ballads: 179. Rookhope Ryde","type":"page"}