N.B. "Two days and a night," mentioned in ver. 125, as the duration of the combat, was probably that of the trial at law.
[In Gough's edition of Camden's Britannia we learn that "Sir Thomas Wortley, who was knight of the body to Edward IV., Richard III., Henry VII. and VIII., built a lodge in his chace of Warncliffe, and had a house and park there, disparked in the Civil War."
Mr. Gilfillan has the following note in his edition of the Reliques, "A legend current in the Wortley family states the dragon to have been a formidable drinker, drunk dead by the chieftain of the opposite moors. Ellis thinks it was a wolf or some other fierce animal hunted down by More of More-hall." A writer in the Notes and Queries (3rd S. ix. 29), who signs himself "Fitzhopkins," expresses his disbelief in the above explanation communicated to Percy by Godfrey Bosville.]
Old stories tell how Hercules
A dragon slew at Lerna,
With seven heads, and fourteen eyes,
To see and well discern-a:
But he had a club, this dragon to drub, 5
Or he had ne'er done it, I warrant ye:
But More of More-Hall, with nothing at all,
He slew the dragon of Wantley.
This dragon had two furious wings,
Each one upon each shoulder; 10
With a sting in his tayl as long as a flayl,
Which made him bolder and bolder.
He had long claws, and in his jaws
Four and forty teeth of iron;
With a hide as tough, as any buff, 15
Which did him round environ.
Have you not heard how the Trojan horse
Held seventy men in his belly?
This dragon was not quite so big,
But very near, I'll tell ye. 20
Devoured he poor children three,
That could not with him grapple;
And at one sup he eat them up,
As one would eat an apple.