[P. 231.] As Spencer had ere he composed his Tales. This probably refers to the Hon. W. R. Spencer, author of Beth Gelert, as well as to the one-time fashionable tailless coat known as a 'spencer.'
[P. 232.] This shall a Carder... Whiteboy... Rock's murderous commands. The reference is to the secret associations which were responsible for much agrarian crime in Ireland during the early part of the nineteenth century.
[P. 235.] If English corn should grow abroad.. Thus in fourth edition of Whims and Oddities (1829), but 'go' in some reprints. The bull is probably intentional.
[P. 237.] Huggins and Duggins. Hood appears to have had Pope's first Pastoral, Spring, especially in mind. In it Strephon and Daphnis alternately sing the praises of Delia and Sylvia:
In Spring the fields, in Autumn hills I love,
At morn the plains, at noon the shady grove,
But Delia always; absent from her sight,
Nor plains at morn, nor grove at noon delight.
[P. 237.] All things by turns, and nothing long. 'Was everything by starts, and nothing long.'—Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel.
[P. 240.] We met. T. H. Bayly's—