No poem in Ashmole 48 is so redolent of the old minstrelsy as The Hunting of the Cheviot. The best known of all the Border ballads, its very tune, ‘sung by an old blind crowder’, became a synonym for popular song, and ‘to sing chevy chase over a pot of ale’ a standard phrase for an evening's entertainment in the tavern. Even today the ballad has a curious familiarity. When Senator Francis G. Newlands set up the Chevy Chase Land Company in 1890 to develop suburban real estate in Maryland, he linked the ballad with what would soon become a prosperous municipality and commercial centre, ensuring that the name at least would remain commonplace throughout the United States.

This enduring ballad tradition had its origins in a relatively minor incident, a diversionary raid launched by the Scots in 1388 which culminated in the battle of Otterburn. The battle was of virtually no strategic or historical importance; it was just one more of the endless Border wars. It was of interest at the time, however, because – at least according to the tradition – it was unusually hard-fought, and because it was fuelled by the personal rivalry of the two leaders, ending in the death of one and the capture of the other. It made a good story and the story was widely told. Froissart devotes eight of his short chapters to it, almost as many as he gives to the battle of Crécy.