Be not afraid, tanner, said our king; For Plumpton-parke I will give thee, 'Tis worth three hundred markes by the yeare, Gramercye, my liege, the tanner replyde, XVI. AS YE CAME FROM THE HOLY LAND DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PILGRIM AND TRAVELLER The scene of this song is the same as in No. 14. The pilgrimage to Walsingham suggested the plan of many popular pieces. In the Pepys Collection, vol. i. p. 226, is a kind of interlude in the old ballad style, of which the first stanza alone is worth reprinting. As I went to Walsingham, To the shrine with speede, Now God you save, you jolly palmer! Oft have I sued to thee for love." -Oft have I said you nay. The pilgrimages undertaken on pretence of religion, were often productive of affairs of gallantry, and led the votaries to no other shrine than that of Venus.2 1 This stanza is restored from a quotation of this ballad in Selden's "Titles of Honour," who produces it as a good authority to prove, that one mode of creating Esquires at that time, was by the imposition of a Collar. His words are, "Nor is that old pamphlet of the Tanner of Tamworth and King Edward the Fourth so contemptible, but that wee may thence note also an observable passage, wherein the use of making Esquires by giving Collars is expressed." (Sub Tit. Esquire; & vide in Spelmanni Glossar. Armiger.) This form of creating Esquires actually exists at this day among the Serjeants at Arms, who are invested with a Collar (which they wear on Collar Days) by the King himself. This information I owe to Samuel Pegge, Esq. to whom the public is indebted for that curious work the "Curialia," 4to. 2 Even in the time of Langland, pilgrimages to Walsingham were not unfavourable to the rites of Venus. Thus in his Visions of Pierce Plowman, fo. 1. bermets on a beape, with boked staves, Talenten to Walsingbam, and ber* wenches after. * i. e. their. The following ballad was once very popular; it is quoted in Fletcher's "Knight of the burning Pestle," act ii. sc. ult. and in another old play, called, "Hans Beer-pot, his invisible Comedy, &c." 4to. 1618: act i. The copy below was communicated to the Editor by the late Mr. Shenstone, as corrected by him from an ancient copy, and supplied with a concluding stanza. We have placed this, and "Gentle Herdsman," &c. thus early in the Series, upon a presumption that they must have been written, if not before the dissolution of the monasteries, yet while the remembrance of them was fresh in the minds of the people. As ye came from the holy land "How should I know your true love, As I came from the holy land, My love is neither white,1 nor browne, There is none hath her form divine, "Such an one did I meet, good Sir, Who like a nymphe, a queene appeard Both in her gait, her grace.' Yes: she hath cleane forsaken me, And left me all alone; Who some time loved me as her life, And called me her owne. "What is the cause she leaves thee thus, That some times loved thee as her life, I that loved her all my youth, Growe olde, now as you see; 1 Sc. pale. For love is like a carelesse childe, He is blind, or deaf, whenere he list; His fond desire is fickle found, And yieldes a trustlesse joye; Wonne with a world of toil and care, Such is the love of womankinde, 'But true love is a lasting fire, Which viewless vestals1 tend. XVII. HARDYKNUTE A SCOTTISH FRAGMENT As this fine morsel of heroic poetry hath generally past for ancient, it is here thrown to the end of our earlier pieces; that such as doubt of its age, may the better compare it with other pieces of genuine antiquity. For after all, there is more than reason to suspect, that it owes most of its beauties (if not its whole existence) to the pen of a lady, within the present century. The following particulars may be depended on. Mrs. Wardlaw, whose maiden name was Halket (aunt to the late Sir Peter Halket, of Pitferran, in Scotland, who was killed in America, along with General Bradock, in 1755), pretended she had found this poem, written on shreds of paper, employed for what is called the bottoms of clues. A suspicion arose that it was her own composition. Some able judges asserted it to be modern. The lady did in a manner acknowledge it to be so. Being desired to shew an additional stanza, as a proof of this, she produced the two last, beginning with "There's nae light," &c. which were not in the copy that was first printed. The late Lord President Forbes, and Sir Gilbert Elliot, of Minto (late Lord Justice Clerk for Scotland) who had believed it ancient, contributed to the expence of publishing the first edition, in folio, 1719. This account was transmitted from Scotland by Sir David Dalrymple, the late Lord Hailes, who yet was of opinion, that part of the ballad may be ancient; but retouched and much enlarged by the lady above-mentioned. Indeed he had been informed, 1 Sc. Angels. that the late William Thompson, the Scottish musician, who published the "Orpheus Caledonius," 1733, 2 vols. 8vo. declared he had heard fragments of it repeated in his infancy, before Mrs. Wardlaw's copy was heard of. The poem is here printed from the original edition, as it was prepared for the press with the additional improvements. See below, page 357. STATELY stept he east the wa', And stately stept he west, Full seventy years he now had seen, II High on a hill his castle stood, III Full thirteen sons to him she bare, High was their fame, high was their might, IV Great love they bare to FAIRLY fair, Her girdle shaw'd her middle jimp, What waefu' wae her beauty bred? V The king of Norse in summer tyde, With noble chiefs in brave aray, VI "To horse, to horse, my royal liege VII Go little page, tell Hardyknute, That lives on hill sae hie, To draw his sword, the dread of faes, And haste and follow me. The little page flew swift as dart, Flung by his master's arm, "Come down, come down, lord Hardyknute, And rid your king frae harm.' VIII Then red red grew his dark-brown cheeks, Sae did his dark-brown brow; His looks grew keen, as they were wont In dangers great to do; He's ta'en a horn as green as grass, And gi'en five sounds sae shill, That trees in green wood shook thereat, IX His sons in manly sport and glee, |