The words that made a man weep

In spite of the reduced visibility, our short trip was enhanced by three interesting observations. The first was a small flock of fieldfares chattering in some heavily-laden hawthorn bushes. These are winter visitors who join us from their summer residence in Scandinavia and I cannot recall ever seeing them so early in the autumn. This was the coastline, however, so perhaps they arrive here earlier than their inland destination so they can feed and rest awhile before continuing their long migratory journey.

The second sighting was another bird, a species I've only seen once before. This was a nutcracker (not a huthatch). It is a member of the crow family and is about the size of a jackdaw. Its curious colouring provides it with a distinctive appearance because it has a breast and underparts which are a pale brown but covered with large white spots. That spotted breast is not easily overlooked!

Its back is darker and there is a very distinctive white patch beneath the tail. On this occasion, it was perched on the topmost branch of a dead tree on the cliff top and it remained there for a few minutes to permit me to enjoy close observation through my binoculars. My previous sighting of a nutcracker, some three or four years ago, was inland, about 30 miles from this sighting.

Our third point of interest was a shrub-like tree growing near the edge of the cliff. Indeed, there were several specimens, each about six feet high and bearing long slender leaves, rather like those of a willow.

The leaves - some three inches (7.5cm) long - had a silvery-grey hue while the spiky branches bore thick clusters of small orange coloured berries. They were the kind of shrub one would expect in a park or ornamental garden but in fact these were wild and thriving on a very exposed site.

They were examples of sea buckthorn. This is one of our most ancient species, its pollen grain having been found in soil deposits dating back some 10,000 years. It is thought to have survived the Ice Age and can reproduce by producing suckers from its out-lying roots.

It has the ability to absorb nitrogen from the air and transfer it to the earth, a skill which enables other plants to thrive nearby, so much so that they often flourish around the sea buckthorn and smother it! It need lots of light and space and so almost the only place you'll find it growing wild is upon the exposed sea cliffs of Britain. I am told that juice from those bitter orange berries was once used to groom the coats of horses - it produced a beautiful shine.

A brief visit to the Lake District reminded me of the country's most famous huntsman, John Peel. He will be forever remembered in the familiar song:

D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so gray,

D'ye ken John Peel at the break of day,

D'ye ken John Peel when he's far, far away

With his hounds and his horn in the morning.

John Peel was a real person, a 19th century farmer who lived at Caldbeck to the north of Skiddaw. He had six sons and six daughters but his reputation has arisen from his devotion to fox hunting; he was addicted to the sport and spent all his spare time hunting, and yet it seems he did not ignore his responsibilities on the farm.

He was a successful farmer who was extremely hard working, for apart from paying his domestic and business expenses, his farm had to bear the cost of his fox hunting interests as well as support his famous pack of hounds. Much of his hunting was done around Caldbeck although he would occasionally venture further away, riding his Galloway to a new venue, and then hunting on foot as was the custom in the Lake District.

It is said that his horse knew his master's whims so well that at the conclusion of each day's hunt, it would find its own way to the finishing point and await its master. Many hunting expeditions were completed by mid-morning, although some did continue into the afternoon or possibly the early evening, with the hounds running more than 80 miles in a single day.

The type of fox which lived in and around Caldbeck was known as the greyhound fox. It was paler in colour than the reddish-chestnut ones with which most of us are familiar, and it also had longer legs and a smaller brush.

These greyhound foxes possessed tremendous stamina, speed, courage and cunning, and although they could devastate poultry and lamb stocks in the remote Lakeland farms, Peel was often known to give one its freedom if it had provided him and his hounds with a good day's sport.

John Peel loved his fox hounds and gave one of them the name Britain. When one Britain died, the name passed to another, but the following is a list of names given to the others - Bellman, Burthwaite, Bowler, Charmer, Crafty, Dancer, Delly, Drunkard, Glory, Leader, Lifter, Lucy, Lilter, Lively, Lofty, Melody, Merry, Ranter, Royal, Stormy, Towler and Welcome.

Some of these names feature in later verses of the famous song and I believe some are still given to Lakeland fox hounds.

So how did the John Peel song originate? The story is that in 1832, after a very strenuous day's hunting, John Peel and his friend, John Woodcock Graves, were in Graves' home at Caldbeck, organising the next meeting. They were relaxing near the fire and chatting over the day's events when Graves' daughter came into the room. She was humming a tune which her grandmother used to sing and asked about its source; Graves knew the tune - it was an old song Borders song known as Bonnie Annie or Canny Annie, and soon they were discussing it and no doubt "lah-lahing" to it.

Graves spotted a pen and paper and began to write words to fit the music. His first were "D'ye ken John Peel with his coat so gray" and soon he had the first verse, albeit then written in the Lakeland dialect.

When he read the words to Peel, the tough old Lakelander began to weep with emotion whereupon Graves said: "By jove, Peel, you'll be sung about when we've both been run to earth!"

The song was first sung in the Rising Sun inn at Caldbeck, and later became the Lake District's anthem, but that first tune is not the one we know today. William Metcalfe, a choirmaster and bass singer with the cathedral choir in Carlisle, heard the song and liked it, but felt it could be improved with more lively music. He wrote a new tune and being an accomplished singer, was able to perform his own creation.

It became a nationwide hit in 1869 when Metcalfe first sang the song to his own music in London at a celebration dinner of the Cumberland benevolent association. Metcalfe died in 1909 and is buried in Carlisle, but Graves had emigrated to Tasmania in 1833 and died there in 1886, aged 91 (not 100 as some records state), having not earned a penny from his famous song.

John Peel had died some years earlier, on November 13, 1854, aged 78 and is buried in Caldbeck churchyard among members of his family. One of his neighbours in the churchyard, who died shortly before him in 1837, is Mary Harrison, nee Robinson, who earned her fame as the Beauty of Buttermere.

The church is dedicated to St Kentigern who is also known as St Mungo, and is one of only eight dedicated to this saint, the others all being in northern Cumbria. Inside there is an old engraving of the Nicene Creed, an unusual relic of the Catholic origins of this old church, parts of which date to the 12th century. And almost opposite the church stands the John Peel Memorial Shelter. As Graves had forecast, John Peel will be sung about when the rest of us have been run to earth!

Yesterday was the feast of All Saints or All Hallows, and today is the feast of All Souls. In many parts of England before the Reformation, people known as soulers would trek around the villages singing hymns while women would make huge amounts of soul cakes, sometimes called Saumas loaves (Soul Mass loaves). These were like scones with added spices and were given to the soulers as a reward