The Echoing Horn

Bob Lewis: On Autumn Harvest ah09: Bob Lewis: Drive Sorrows Away. Recorded at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival May 2009.

There are several similar hunting songs with this title and one is included in the Holm Valley Beagles song book and another is in the Copper Family repertoire. Perhaps this song, which was a popular song in the repertoire of another singer Geoge Townshend of Lewes, should be referred to by its alternative title The Glittering Dewdrops (Roud 878).

1: The glittering dewdrops that spangles in the morn,
The glittering dewdrops that spangles in the morn;
Oh the bright shining dewdrops, oh the bright shining dewdrops,
The bright shining dewdrops that spangles in the morn.

Chorus:
Oh echo, bright echo the echoing horn,
Oh echo, bright echo the echoing horn;
As she skims through the dew on a bright shiny morn,
How sweet it is to follow the echoing horn,
How sweet it is to follow the echoing horn.

2: All nature’s so charming and pleasant is the morn,
All nature’s so charming and pleasant is the morn;
And we’ll all go together, and we’ll all go together,
And we’ll all go together to the sound of the horn.

3: That all men are sportsmen I own for to be true,
That all men are sportsmen I own for to be true;
For some scent or another, for some scent or another,
For some scent or another each man he doth pursue.

4: Some hunt after riches while others seek the chase,
Some hunt after riches while others seek the chase;
But they who love a keener sport, but they who seek the keener sport,
(But they who love a keener sport) will hunt a pretty face.

5: When puss rose from cover ’twas earlye in the morn
When puss rose from cover ’twas earlye in the morn;
And we’ll all go together, and we’ll all go together,
We’ll all go together to the sound of the horn.

Chorus:
Oh echo, bright echo the echoing horn,
Oh echo, bright echo the echoing horn;
As she skims through the dew on a bright shiny morn,
How sweet it is to follow the echoing horn,
How sweet it is to follow the echoing horn.

Alternative lines:
Verse 2 lines 3,4:
Oh how sweet it is to follow, oh how sweet it is to follow,
How sweet it is to follow to the sound of the horn.

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