Pp. 133, 139. L. Anna Seward to Walter Scott, April 25–29, 1802: Letters addressed to Sir Walter Scott, I, No 54, Abbotsford. “The Binnorie of endless repetition has nothing truly pathetic, and the ludicrous use made of the drowned sister’s body is well burlesqued in a ridiculous ballad, which I first heard sung, with farcial grimace, in my infancy [born 1747], thus:”
1
And O was it a pheasant cock,
Or eke a pheasant hen?
Or was it and a gay lady,
Came swimming down the stream?
2
O it was not a pheasant cock,
Or eke a pheasant hen,
But it was and a gay lady,