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Caledonian fatality in Thomas Percy’s Reliques
of Chevy Chase’, chosen as the first ballad in the collection, might have presented problems because of the events it commemorated. It could be perceived as a medieval poem about a border skirmish between English and Scottish factions, which occurred because the then Lord Percy arbitrarily decided to make an illegal incursion into Scotland to hunt deer (1; 1, I, i). However, the ballad depicts this action as a holy and righteous exercise of Percy’s power as an English nobleman: The Persé owt of Northombarlande