(a) Legendary ballads in the Collection of 1723 include: “Fair Rosamond”, “King Henry (II) and the Miller of Mansfield”, “Sir Andrew Barton’s Death”, “King Leir and his Three Daughters”, “Coventry made free by Godiva”, “The Murther of the Two Princes in the Tower”, “King John and the Abbot of Canterbury”.
Many others deal with historical themes, such as “The Banishment of the Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk”, or with famous battles. “King Henry Fifth’s Conquest of France” probably belongs to the reign of George I.
(b) “The Blind Beggar’s Daughter” was adapted from a favourite Elizabethan ballad, “Young Monford Riding to the Wars”.
There is a prose chap-book, printed by T. Norris, London, 1715.
Other sea-ballads in Child’s collection are:—“The Sweet Trinity” (or, “The Golden Vanity”).—Pepys, 1682-5; “Captain Ward and the Rainbow”,—Roxburghe and Aldermary copies; “The Mermaid” (or, “The Seamen’s Distress”).—Garland of 1765, etc.; “Sir Patrick Spens”.—Percy’s Reliques, 1765, Herd’s Scottish Songs, 1769, and Scott’s Minstrelsy, 1803.
II.
There is a list of great men given in The Tatler (No. 67), Sept. 13, 1709; and in No. 78, one Lemuel Ledger writes to put Mr. Bickerstaff in mind of “Alderman Whittington, who began the World with a Cat and died with three hundred and fifty thousand Pounds sterling”.