If Fortune e'er should fickle be, and wish to have again
That which she so freely gave, I'd give it without pain:

I would part with it right freely, and without the least remorse,
Only grant to me what God hath gave, my mistress and my horse!
That I may ride away, trot away, &c.

P. 128, 1. 2.-Ghyll.] A narrow rocky valley branching out of one of the larger mountain-dales or passes. The word ghyll, or gill, or giel, is used in the same sense in Iceland and Norway. The name of the tremendous Norwegian pass, Vettie's Giel, described by so many English travellers, will occur to our readers.

P. 165, 1. 9.—Parkin.] A cake composed of oatmeal, carraway-seeds, and treacle; "ale and parkin" is a common morning-meal in the North of England.

P. 168, 1. 20.-'Twas all his daily prise.] This word should have been printed 'prise, to show that it was an abbreviation of emprise;-an hazardous attempt.

P. 171.-The Farmer's Son.] This song is found in The Vocal Miscellany; a Collection of above four hundred celebrated Songs, the first edition of which was published in 1729. As the Miscellany makes no pretension to anything beyond a "Collection," we may fairly presume the song to be of anterior date to 1729.

P. 173.-Wooing Song of a Yeoman of Kent's Sonne.] We have here the original of a well-known Scottish song.

"I hae laid a herring in saut;

Lass, gin ye lo'e me, tell me now!

I hae brew'd a forpet o' maut,

An' I canna come ilka day to woo!"

with

P. 175.-Harvest Home Song.] A copy of this song, the music, may be found in D'Urfey's Pills to purge Melancholy. It varies from our's, but we have not adopted its

renderings. D'Urfey's work has been greatly overrated; so far as the music is concerned, it may be an authority; but he took such liberties with the text of the songs, that we would sooner trust to a modern broadside, or even to a traditional version, than to his book.

P. 178.-The Barley-Mow Song.] The Suffolk peasantry have the following very short version of the Barley-Mow Song:

"Here's a health to the barley-mow!

Here's a health to the man

Who very well can

Both harrow, and plough, and sow!

"When it is well sown,

See it is well mown,—

Both raked and gavelled clean,

And a barn to lay it in.

Here's a health to the man

Who very well can

Both thrash, and fan it clean !"

P. 185, 1. 16-Sellenger's Round.] The common modern copies read St. Leger's Round.

P. 196, 1. 10.-Trunk weam.-Taken in the literal sense, this would mean trunk, or box-belly. It is evidently a cant term for a fiddle.

P. 196.-The Maskers' Song.] Robert Kearton, a working miner, and librarian and lecturer at the Grassington Mechanics' Institution, informs us that at Coniston, in Lancashire, and the neighbourhood, the maskers go about at the

proper season, viz., Easter. Their introductory song is different to the one given by us. He has favoured us with two verses of the delectable composition; he says, "I dare say they'll be quite sufficient!"

"The next that comes on

Is a gentleman's son;-
A gentleman's son he was born;

For mutton and beef,

You may look at his teeth,

He's a laddie for picking a bone!

"The next that comes on

Is a tailor so bold,

He can stitch np a hole in the dark!

There's never a 'prentice

In famed London city,

Can find any fault with his wark!!

P. 201.-Richard of Taunton Dean.] As an exemplification of the extensive popularity which this old Westcountry ditty has obtained, the editor has been favoured by T. Crofton Croker, Esq. with two Irish versions. One of them is entitled, Last New-Year's Day, and is printed by Haly, Hanover Street, Cork. It is almost verbatim with the English song, with the exception of the first and second verses, which are as follows:

The other version is entitled Dicky of Ballyman, and a note informs us that "Dicky of Ballyman's sirname was Byrne!" As our readers may like to hear how the Somersetshire bumpkin behaved after he had located himself in the town of Ballyman, and taken the sirname of Byrne, we give the whole of his amatory adventures in the

sister-island. We discover from them, inter alia, that he had found the "best of friends" in his "Uncle,”—that he had made a grand discovery in natural history, viz., that a rabbit is a fowl!—that he had taken the temperance pledge, which, however, his Mistress Ann had certainly not done; and, moreover, that he had become an enthusiast in potatoes!

"If on fine clothes our money is spent,
Pray how shall my lord be paid his rent?

He'll expect it when 'tis due,-
Believe me, what I say is true.

"As for tea, good stirabout

Will do far better, I make no doubt;
And spring water, when you dine,
Is far wholesomer than wine.

"Potatoes, too, are very nice food,-
I don't know any half so good:
You may have them boiled or roast,
Whichever way you like them most.

"This gave the company much delight,
And made them all to laugh outright;
So Dicky had no more to say,

But saddled his dapple and rode away.

Diddle dum di, &c."

In concluding these remarks, we may just observe that we lately heard an old Yorkshire yeoman sing Richard of Taunton Dean, who commenced his version with this fine line :

"It was at the time of a high holiday."

P. 203, 1. 23.—Doat-fig.] A fig newly gathered from the tree, so called to distinguish it from a grocer's, or preserved fig.

P. 206.—Joan's Ale was New.] This song is mentioned in Thackeray's Catalogue under the title of Jone's Ale's New. Thackeray began to publish about nineteen years after the Commonwealth, so that the circumstantial evidence is strongly in favour of the hypothesis advanced in our introductory remarks.