Art and Song
The Hunt has also featured
in a rather macabre folk song collected by Lucy Broadsword
from Mr. Forster of Surrey. Reported in The Times on Tuesday
January 14th 1834, it's the true story of a body found on
Leatherhead Common by the Surrey Union Hunt. It was Hanky the squire as
I've heard men say About eight o'clock, boys,
our dogs they throve off They whipped their dogs off
and they kept them away They mounted their horses
and they rode off the ground The next sunday morning
about eight o'clock She was took off the Common
and down to some inn The coffin was brought, in
it she was laid So now I conclude and I'll
finish my song Recorded by Shirley Collins
and the Albion Country Band on "No Roses" (1971) and by
Carthy/Swarbrick on "But Two Came By" (1969) (without last
verse)
The Surrey Union was famously painted by F.A. Stewart in
about 1932
Who rode out a-hunting on one saturday
They hunted all day but nothing they found
But a poor murdered woman laid on the cold ground
On Leatherhead Common and that was the spot
They tried all the bushes but nothing they found
But a poor murdered woman laid on the cold ground
Cried "We think it is proper that she should have fair
play"
They tried all the bushes but nothing they found
But a poor murdered woman laid on the cold ground
They rode to the village and alarmed it all around
"It is late in the evening, I'm sorry to say
She cannot be removed until the next day"
Some hundreds of people to the spot they did flock
For to see the poor creature, your hearts would have
bled
Some cold-hearted violents came into their heads
And the man that has kept it, his name is John Simms
The coroner was sent for, the jury they joined
And soon they concluded and they settled their
mind
And took to the churchyard of this court Leatherhead
No father nor mother nor no friend I'm told
Came to see the poor creature laid under the lawn
And those that have tarried shall find themselves wrong
To the last day of Georgemont a trumpet shall sound
And this soul's not in heaven, I'm afraid, when being
found