[45] The date of this ballad is evidently 1837, soon after the Queen’s accession.
[46] This, in all probability, was the Peace of 1814.
[47] There is a well-authenticated instance (see Times, November 4, 1799) of a Miss Talbot, who followed her lover as a seaman, and, afterwards quarrelling with him, she enlisted in the army; but her love of the sea was unconquerable, and she joined the Navy, being present on board Earl St. Vincent’s ship on February 14, and again was under fire at Camperdown.
[48] I have heard this verse sung thus:
Now the losing of the Prentice boys
It grieved the Captain sore,
But the losing of the great big whale,
It grieved him very much more.
[49] Her Majesty’s accession to the throne took place on June 20, 1837.
[50] The Queen was married on February 10, 1840.
[51] Jupiter appeared to Danaë as a shower of gold.
[52] This event took place November 9, 1841.
[53] 1849.