In Goldsmith's Hall there's a handsome glass-case, And in it a stone figure, found on the place, When, thinking the old Hall no longer a pleasant one, They pull'd it all down, and erected the present one. If you look, you'll perceive that this stone figure twists A thing like a broomstick in one of its fists. It's so injured by time, you can't make out a feature; But it is not St. Dunstan,—so doubtless it's Peter.
Gengulphus, or, as he is usually styled in this country, "Jingo," was perhaps more in the mouths of the "general" than any other Saint, on occasions of adjuration (see note, page 145). Mr. Simpkinson from Bath had kindly transmitted me a portion of a primitive ballad, which has escaped the researches of Ritson and Ellis, but is yet replete with beauties of no common order. I am happy to say that, since these Legends first appeared, I have recovered the whole of it.—Vide infra.
"A Franklyn's dogge leped over a style, And hys name was littel Byngo. B wyth a Y—Y wyth an N,— N wyth a G—G with an O,— They call'd hym littel Byngo!
Thys Franklyn, Syrs, he brewed goode ayle, And he called it Rare goode Styngo! S, T, Y, N, G, O! He call'd it Rare goode Styngo!
Nowe is notte thys a prettie song? I thinke it is bye Jyngo! J wythe a Y—N, G, O— I sweare yt is by Jyngo!"
FOOTNOTES:
[9] St. Jingo, or Gengo (Gengulphus), sometimes styled "The Living Jingo," from the great tenaciousness of vitality exhibited by his severed members. See his Legend, as recorded hereafter in the present volume.