D'ye ken the real John Peel ?

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 nineteenth 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 could 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.

Peel loved his fox hounds and gave one of them the name Britain. When one Britain died, the name passed on 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 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 twelfth 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!

Updated: 10:48 Thursday, November 01, 2001