Well knock me down with a quaver.
It was a performance designed to entertain rather than delight and it certainly did that.
But I had no idea what Ilkley Moor was like. So encountering it as I did today, I mean the moor rather than the song, came as a surprise.
I think of moors as low lying flat places filled with water loving greenery, but Ilkley isn’t like that at all. It’s more like one side of a vast valley carved out by a glacier. The vegetation is dry, sometimes tinder dry, with an abundance of heather. At its highest points it counts as a mountain.
It is reasonably wild. However there is a dividing line. On one side you can shoot the grice. On the other they are protected.
I’m told game birds are nice to eat and maybe they are. But my experience suggests the lead shot damages your teeth.
Jonathan Brind