258 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 47. 



There is anotlier old (liideed an cS'idently very 

 ancient) song, wliicli I do not remember to have 

 seen in print, or even referred to in print. None 

 of the books into which I liave looked, from deem- 

 ing them likely to contain it, make the least refer- 

 ence to this song. I have heard it in one of the 

 midland counties, and in one of the western, both 

 many yeai-s ago; but I have not heard it in Lon- 

 don or any of the metropolitan districts. The 

 song begins thus : — 



" London Bridge is broken down, 

 Dance over my Ladj' Le.i : 

 London Bridge is broken down, 

 With a gay hidee." 



This must surely refer to some event preserved 

 in history, — may indeed be well known to well- 

 read antiquaries, though so totally unknown to 

 men whose general pursuits (like my own) have 

 lain in other directions. The pi-esent, however, is 

 an age for "popularising" knowledge ; and your 

 work has assumed that task as one of its functions. 



The difficulties attending such inquiries as arise 

 out of matters so trivial as an old ballad, are 

 curiously illustrated liy the answers already printeil 

 respecting the " wooing frog." In the first place, 

 it was attributed to times within living memory ; 

 then shown to exceed that period, and supposed to 

 be very old, — even as old as the Commonwealth, 

 or, perhaps, as the lleforniation. Tiiis is objected 

 to, from "the style and wording of the song being 

 evidently of a much later period than the age of 

 Henry VIII.;" and Buckingham's " mad" scheme 

 of taking Charles into Spain to woo the infanta is 

 substituted. This is enforced by the " burden of 

 the song;" whilst another correspondent considers 

 this " chorus" to be an old one, analogovis to 

 " Down derry down : " — that is, INI. denies the 

 force of Mr. M.viiony's* explanation altogether! 



Then conies the Hermit of IIolvport, with a 

 very decisive proof that neither in the time of 

 James I., nor of the Commonwealth, could it have 

 originated. His transcript from Mr. Collier's 

 Extracts carries it undeniably back to the middle 

 of the reign of Elizabeth. Of course, it is inter- 

 esting to find intermediate versions or variations 

 of the ballad, and even the adaptation of its 

 A-amework to other ballads of recent times, su( h 

 as "Heigho! says Kemble,"- — one of the Drury 

 Lane "O. P. Row" ballads (lifjcctcd Addresses, 

 last ed., or Cunningham's London). Why the con- 

 jecture respecting Henry VHl. is so contemptu- 

 ously thrown aside as a "fancy," I do not see. If 

 the Hermit will take the trouble to "think again," 

 he will discover that the first step in ever;/ investi- 

 gation (ay, even in mathematical investigation) 



* Why Mn. Maiiony ciills a person in his " sixth 

 decade" a "sexagenarian" ho best knows. Such is 

 certainly not the ordinary meaning of the term he uses. 

 His pun is good, however. 



is a conjecture. Conjectures are examined, one 

 after another, till something inconsistent with tliem 

 turns up, or till all the conditions of complete 

 proof are discovered to be fulfilled. A fancy, 

 on the contrary, is a dogma taken up without 

 proof, and in the teeth of obvious probability, 

 — tenaciously adhered to, and all investigation 

 eschewed. This at least is the ordinary significa- 

 tion of the term, in relation to the search after 

 truth. How far my own conjecture, or the mode 

 of putting it, fulfils these conditions, it is not neces- 

 sary for me to discuss : l)ut I hope the usefulness 

 and interest of the "Notes and Queries" will 

 not be marred by any discourtesy of one corre- 

 spondent towards another. 



At the same time, the Hermit of Holyport 

 has done the most essential service to this inquiry 

 by his extract from Mr. Collier, as the question is 

 thereby inclosed within exceedingly narrow limits. 

 But if the ballad do not refer to Henry VIIL, to 

 whom can it be referred with greater jn-obability ? 

 It is too much to assume that all the poetry, wit, 

 and talent of the Tudor times were confined to the 

 partizans of the Tudor cause, religious or political. 

 We know, indeed, the contrary. But for his com- 

 munication, too, the singular coincidence of two 

 such characteristic words of the song in the " Foley 

 Frog" (in the same number of the "Notes and 

 Queries") might have given rise to another con- 

 jecture : but the date excludes its further con- 

 sideration. 



I may add, that since this has been mooted, an 

 Irish gentleman has told me that the song was 

 familiar enough in Dublin; and he repeated some 

 stanzas of it, which were considerably different 

 from the version of W. A. G., and the chorus the 

 same as in the common English version. I hope 

 presently to receive a complete copy of it: which, 

 by the bye, like everything grotesquely humorous 

 in Ireland, was attributed to the author of Gid- 

 livers Travels. T. S. D. 



" JUNIUS identified. 



It is fortunate for my reputation that I am still 

 living to vindicate my title to the authorsiiip of 

 my own book, ■which seems otherwise in danger of 

 being taken from me. 



I can assure your correspondent R. J. (Vol. ii., 

 p. 103.) that I was not only "literally ^//e UTite?;" 

 (as he kindly suggests, with a view of saving my 

 credit for having ]>ut my name to the book), but 

 in its '^'ullest sense the author of " Junius Identi- 

 Jied;" and that I never received the slightest 

 assistance from IMr. Dubois, or any other person, 

 either in collecting or arranging the evidence, or 

 in the compositicm and correction of the work. 

 After I had com])leted my undertaking, I wrote to 

 Mr. Dubois to ask if he would allow me to see the 

 handwriting of Sir Philip Francis, that I might 



