Lyrics
Oh, a-hunting we will go, A-hunting we will go, We'll catch a little fox, And put him in a box, And then we'll let him go.
#A-Hunting We Will Go at a glance
- Country of origin
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
- Sung in
- English
- Words by
- Traditional
- First known
- melody by Thomas Arne, 1777
- Best for ages
- 2–7
- Mood
- playful, traditional, dancing
- Last updated
- 25 July 2026
How to sing it
- Form two lines or a ring and skip along in time as you sing "a-hunting we will go".
- Act out catching the little fox and popping him into a box on the matching lines.
- On "and then we'll let him go", open your hands and set the fox free — no harm done.
Meaning and origin
This is a song built for moving. For centuries children have skipped along in lines or rings to its bouncing rhythm, acting out a pretend hunt in which a little fox is caught, popped into a box, and — importantly — let go again unharmed. The gentle ending is the whole character of the children’s version: it is not really about hunting at all, but about the pleasure of the chase, the rhyme, and the skip.
The words are old English folk, but the tune everyone knows has a date and an author: it was composed by Thomas Arne in 1777, for a London production connected with The Beggar’s Opera. That melody turned out to be extraordinarily catchy, and it has spread far beyond the nursery — most famously as the tune of the football-terrace chant “Ee Aye Addio”. Its neat, repeating shape also makes it a favourite frame for invention: once children have caught the fox, they will happily go hunting for a badger, a bear, or anything else that rhymes with a good hiding place.
Common questions
- What is "A-Hunting We Will Go" about?
- A cheerful pretend hunt. The singers set off "a-hunting", catch a little fox, put him in a box — and then, kindly, let him go again. In the children's version no animal is harmed; the fun is all in the skipping and the rhyme, not the chase.
- How old is "A-Hunting We Will Go", and who wrote the tune?
- The words are an old English folk rhyme, but the well-known melody was composed by Thomas Arne in 1777, for a London production connected with "The Beggar's Opera". The same tune has since travelled widely — it is even the basis of the football chant "Ee Aye Addio".
- How is "A-Hunting We Will Go" usually performed?
- As a singing dance. Children skip in lines or a ring and act out the words, catching and freeing the fox. Its short, repeating shape also makes it a popular template for making up new verses.
