Wantley

Wantley. A mock heroic ballad, printed in Percy’s Reliques, celebrates a fight in which the dragon of Wantley was worsted and slain. The ballad itself (early 17th century) is a vulgar but justifiable satire on such extravagant fictions, and Percy prints a dubious story of its origin being a lawsuit concerning a claim of tithes made by the Wortley family, whose seat, Warncliffe Lodge (locally Wantley), is 6 miles from Rotherham in Yorkshire. The ballad is poor at best.