May 15. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



461 



There is not much difference in the song, but 

 the moral tone of the German is much higher. 

 The frog restores the princess's golden ball, which 

 has fallen into the well, on her promising to do all 

 those things which he afterwards demands ; and 

 the king insists on her compliance, because a pro- 

 mise is sacred, when made even to a frog. Our 

 farmer contradicts his daughter's inclinations to 

 the verge, or perhaps beyond the verge, of deco- 

 rum, on the speculation of " what it may come to 

 at last." To be sure, if the Oxfordshire version is 

 correct, she gets only a sportsman for a husband. 



H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



NO. III. 



There was once an old woman, who left her 

 daughter at home to get dinner ready, while she 

 was at church. On coming back she found nothing 

 touched, and her daughter crying by the fire-place. 

 "Why, what now?" exclaimed the old woman. 

 " Why, do you know," replied her daughter, " as 

 I was going to cook the dinner a brick fell down 

 the chimney, and you know it might have killed 

 me." This the old woman could not deny, and 

 joined her daughter in her lamentations. 



So in a little while the good man came in, and 

 finding botli weeping, cried out, "What's the matter 

 here? What, all in tears?" "Why," said the 

 old wife, " do you know, as Sally was going to get 

 the dinner ready a brick fell down the chimney, 

 and you know it might have killed her." This her 

 husband was forced to confess, and lifted up his 

 voice with them. 



Shortly after, Sally's sweetheart came in, and 

 seeing the hubbub and confusion, began, " What's 

 up here? All weeping?" "Why, you know," 

 said the father, " as Sally was going to cook the 

 dinner a brick fell down the chimney, and you 

 know it might have killed her." " VVell ! " said 

 the young man; " of all the fools I've seen, you 

 three are the greatest ; and when I find three as 

 great, why, then I'll come back and marry your 

 daughter." 



So away he went and went till he came to where 

 an old woman was busy, for she was going to bake. 

 But she bitterly bewailed her ill-luck ; for, instead 

 of taking the bread to the oven, she had got a 

 rope fastened to the oven, and was trying with all 

 her might to drag it to the bread, but it wouldn't 

 budge an inch for all her pains. " Oh, you fool," 

 cried the young man ; "you should take the bread 

 to the oven, and not try to drag the oven to the 

 bread." " Oh, I didn't think of that," said she ; 

 "la! so I should." "Well, indeed, and that's 

 fool number one," said the young man ; and he 

 went on his way. 



So he went and went, longer than I can tell, till 

 he came to where an old woman should feed her 

 cow with grass that grew on her cottage-roof; but, 



instead of throwing down the grass to the cow, she 

 was trying to drag the cow to the roof, but she 

 could not, for all her pains. " Why, you fool," 

 said the young man, " cut the grass, and throw it 

 to the cow, to be sure." " Ay, I didn't think of 

 that," said she. " That's fool number two, sure 

 enough ; but it will be long before I meet such 

 another." 



But again he went and went, till at last he saw 

 a man who was trying to put his breeches on; 

 but instead of holding them in his hand, he had 

 propped them up with sticks, and was trying in 

 vain to take a running jump into them. " Put in 

 your legs, stupid ! " said he. " That I didn't think 

 of," said the man. " Here, indeed, is fool number 

 three," said the young man. So he turned him 

 homewards ; came back to his sweetheart's cot- 

 tage, and married Sally, the old woman's daughter. 



For a Norwegian parallel story, see Norske 

 Folkeeventyr samlede ved Ashjiimsen og Jorgen 

 Moe, I., Christiania, 1843, No. 10. pp. 61-67., 

 "Somme Kjaerringer er slige." 



Geoege Stephens. 



GOLDSMITH S HISTORY OF MECKXENBURGH. 



In Mr. Prior's Life of Goldsmith (vol. i. p. 388.), 

 he observes that " one of his (Goldsmith's) labours, 

 if we may believe the accounts of several personal 

 acquaintances, for no certain evidence of the fact 

 is at hand, and the work has been sought for in 

 vain," was The History of Mecklenhurgh, pub- 

 lished for Newbery in February, 1762. This 

 work, which seems to have eluded Mr. Prior's 

 great diligence, I have now before me. It is in 

 8vo., to which a portrait of Queen Charlotte is 

 prefixed, and is entitled, The History of Mecklen- 

 burgh from the first Settlement of the Vandals in 

 that Country to the present Time, including a Period 

 of about I'hree Thousand Years : London, printed 

 for J. Newbery, at the Bible and Sun, in St. Paul's 

 Churchyard, 1762. Pages, Preface, xiv. ; History, 

 360. It is dedicated by Newbery to the Queen, in a 

 short and rather elegant address, in which, as well 

 as in the Preface which follows, there are marks of 

 Goldsmith's style. The History itself appears to 

 have been compiled in haste, and certainly bears 

 no decisive internal evidence of having Goldsmith 

 for its author. It is, however, rather superior to 

 the ordinary run of similar compilations, and in 

 some parts — (see account of the Vandals, pp. 11. to 

 22., and character of Gustavus Adolphus, p. 271.) 

 — is not without proofs that the writer had powers 

 of pleasing and vigorous composition. It may have 

 proceeded from Goldsmith, and, as it is attributed 

 to him by the accounts of several personal acquaint- 

 ances, in all probability did so; though, without 

 some indication of that kind, its authorship would 

 not perhaps have been suspected. Mr. Forster 

 (^Life of Goldsmith, p. 241.) states that for the 



