i2S. vm. APRILIB, 1021.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 301 LONDON, APRIL 16, 1921. CONTENTS. No. 157. NOTES : Congreve as a Ballad- Writer, 301 Among the Shakespeare Archives : The Expulsion of Master William Bott, 303" Britisher " v. " Briton." 304 Aldeburgh : Extracts from Chamberlains' Account-Book, 305 Political Verses by Charles Lamb ?, 306 Raining in the Sunshine Publications of Frederick Locker-Lampson " Some "- ffairebanck and Rawson Families, 307. QUERIES : The Death of William Rufus Ban quo- John Pym Carew Family of Beddington. Surrey Patricius Walker: "Juan de Vega "--"Ware the Bag. 308 Old Genealogies Engraving on Snuff-box Lid " The Year's Round'of Children's Games Tribal Hidages A Seventeenth-Century Compass The Mermaid at her Toilet, 309 Black Cat Superstition Regattas " Sir ! Roderick Spens " Old London : The Cloth Fair Four- ; Bottle Men Source of Lines wanted Dickson, Book- seller, Edinburgh Drury and Castle, 310 Habeas Corpus ' Act Katharine Tudor of Berain Author Wanted, 311. REPLIES : Benjamin Choyce Sowdon Bamfylde Moore , Carew, 311 Sir Hans Sloane's Bloomsbury House j Globist The Place-name Totland, 312 Pastorini's l Prophecy Tavern Signs : " The Duke's Motto " M. | Gordon, Minor Poet Old Inns James Dray ton, 313 " The Haven under the Hill " " Colly my Cow " Book Borrowers, 314 "The Empire" Second Bishop of Carlisle Heraldry of St. Augustine's Abbey. Bristol Old Song Wanted, 315 ' Giovanni Sbogarro ' " Nothing but their eyes to weep with " The Lord's Prayer in Romany Peacock's Feathers Cider and Rheumatism, 316 The j Golden Ball The Roman Numeral Alphabet Queen I Elizabeth's Statue, St. Dunstan's-in-the-West, 317 Shakespeare Query Hunting Songs : Chaworth Musters " Comlies " and " Cony Bags " St. Oswald Epitaphs j Desired Culbin Sands, 318 The Rabbit in Comparative ' Religion Gray's ' Elegy,' 319. NOTES ON BOOKS: 'A New Book about London' Don Quixote' 'The Story of the Shire' 'Rules for Com- positors ' 'The Berks, Bucks and Oxon Archaeological Journal ' Notices to Correspondents. Jgote*. CONGREVE AS A BALLAD-WRITER. SOON, after the Hanoverian accession the wife of Lord Chancellor Cowper, who was then Lady of the Bedchamber to the Prin- cess of Wales, the future Queen Caroline, records in her diary that she was thanked by her mistress for drinking her health ! at supper, and adds "I told her I never failed at any meals drinking j hers and my master's ; upon which the Prince j said he did not wonder he had such good health i since he came into England, since I took so much ; part in it. I told him that before his coming hi ther, I and my children had constantly drunk j his health by the name of ' Young Hanover brave,' which was the title Mr. Congreve had given him in a ballad."*
- Diary of Mary Count oss C'owper, ed. by Hon.
Charles Spencer Cowper, Lond., 1865, p. 23. For my knowledge of the passage I am indebted | to Professor Firth. As a footnote to the diary states, the ballad is one that opens with the following lines : Ye commons and peers, Pray lend me your ears, I'll sing you a song if I can, How Lewis le Grand Was put to a stand By the arms of our gracious Queen Anne. The reference to George II. is in the sixth verse : Not so did behave Young Hanover brave, In this bloody field, I assure ye ; When his war-horse was shot, He valued it not, But fought it on foot like a fury. The ballad has for its subject the Battle of Oudenarde, which was fought in 1708, on July 11, and its appearance was thus an- nounced eight days later in The Daily C our ant : Just Publish'd Jack Frenchman's Defeat, being an Excellent new Song. To a Pleasant Tune, with a fair Representation of the Battle curiously Engraven. Sold by Benj. Brugg in Pater-Noster-Bow, price a half penny. From the broadside* it is learned that the " pleasant tune " was that of There was a fair maid in the North country Came tripping over the plain, but this setting, which would seem hardly likely to have been quite apposite, was superseded by one specially composed by Dick Leveridge, who not improbably made use of the ballad on the stage, f The ballad, of which a Latin version exists, J became all the vogue. A severely revised edition was issued with the following title : Jack Frenchman's Lamentation : An Ex- cellent New Song. To the Tune of I'll tell thee, Dick, &c., or Who can but love a Seaman, &c. This edition was followed by a third, in which a weak verse, the seventh, was omitted. ||
- A copy is preserved in the British Museum,
C 40 m. 10 ( 103), and is reproduced in ' The Bag- ford Ballads,' ed. by J. W. Ebsworth, 1876, p. 386. The woodcut, which is in every sense of the word curious, represents the Pretender and the Dukes of Burgundy and Berry first on a church tower viewing a battle from afar, and afterwards on horseback galloping away from a scene of carnage. t ' Wit and Mirth or Pills to Purge Melancholy,' vi. (Lond., 1720) 1. J It is preserved in a manuscript collection known as ' The Whimsical Medley ' in the Library of Trin. Coll. Dubl. Brit. Mus., 1876, f. 1 (40). This broadside is also headed by a woodcut representing soldiers on the march preceded by fife, drum and ensign. The tunes were probably suggested on account of their popularity. j| Brit. Mus.. 12350 m. 18 (3). The ballad com- prised originally fourteen verses.
