THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. ; 73 
times, mutilated for treason. The Bristol ballad is one of the best 
of the Rowley poems. For two centuries some of the Chatterton 
family were sextons at the Church of St. Mary, Redcliffe, Bristol. 
During Chatterton’s Jife, his uncle was sexton. The boy poet gave 
it out that the poems he produced had been found by elder members 
of his family, in the muniment chest of Redcliffe Church, and 
were transcribed by him. To sustain his story illuminated docu- 
ments were produced, as marvellous in their way as the poems, and 
these, and the boy’s extreme youth, aided to keep up for almost a 
hundred years controversy as to the authenticity of these poems. 
It was at Bristol that Joseph Cottle, the bookseller, nearly a 
hundred years ago, published a little work, called ‘‘ Lyrical Ballads,” 
of some interest in relation to our subject. That little book was the 
joint production of William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Cole- 
ridge, two men who have exercised great influence on English 
literature. The ballads of their volume were conjointly written 
by the two poets, when they were at their best, and during the period 
of their closest intimacy. Like the ‘‘ Blue Boy ” of Gainsborough, 
the artist, the work of each was done to illustrate a theory. 
Wordsworth and Coleridge differed in opinion as to the relative 
poetical value of incidents of common everyday life, and those which 
border on the supernatural. Each wrote ballads for this volume to 
prove his own theory. Wordsworth wrote more than a dozen pieces 
on his side; while, Coleridge wrote only one, the ‘‘ Ancient 
Mariner,” in proof of his contention. The essence of the controversy 
between these distinguished poets existed long before their day, and 
will divide the opinions of men long after them. But, if it did not 
settle their dispute, their controversy gave to the English language 
some of its best ballads. Both the “Ancient Mariner” and 
“Christabel” are too long to quote in their entirety, and to mutilate 
them would be a wrong : 
‘© Farewell, farewell ! but this I tell 
To thee thou Wedding Guest ! 
He prayeth weil, who loveth well, 
Both man and bird and beast.”’ 
The songs of the people command passing reference. Thomas 
Hood, Ebenezer Elliott, Ernest Jones, and Gerald Massey have 
written ballads that are bright, humorous and delightful, but some 
of their songs are veritable voices from the depths, wails of despair 
that startle the ear, and make the heart ache. ‘Their gloomiest 
