The Arts In Berwick -- Ballads and Poems
Chevy Chase

One of the oldest of English ballads, Chevy Chase recounts a stag hunt on Cheviot. Praised by writers Sir Philip Sydney, Ben Jonson and Joseph Addison, the precise events described in the ballad are uncertain but clearly relate to the bitter rivalry between the Percy and Douglas families.

In 1388 this lead to the battle of Otterburn, when the Percy brothers were captured by the Scots. This inspired the ballad The Battle of Otterbourne. The rematch as it were, was the battle of Homildon Hill in 1402. The Newcastle folksong collector John Bell records a minor ballad on this and Sir Walter Scott wrote a rather bad play on the subject.

One of the best early works of the great Victorian artist Edwin Landseer (1802-73) depicts the hunt. William Bell Scott also decorated Wallington Hall with scenes from Chevy Chase in 1866.

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