Originally Posted by
XRunner
Here is an early hare and hounds (cross-county) verse I uncovered today:
The Wights o' London.
With faces long and leary,
That allowed how much they "knowed"
With bags of paper, two men,
Ran down a country road.
They sought the worst of tillage,
But cleanly picked their way,
For toiling far behind them,
The pack was miles away.
Oh dirty crew from London,
Of hues from grey to brown,
What mud you'll carry on you,
when you return to town.
The run was long and dreary,
And wearily they strode,
O'er fields both ploughed and grassy,
Along the muddy road.
The tall man looked quite worn,
He was neither blithe nor gay.
The rest were in the distance,
He didn't know the way.
"Oh cruel hares, I'm undone,
I should say I'm done brown
The hedges, I can't leap them
would I were back in town".
"La Cigale",
from The Midland Athlete
2 November 1881.