The title of the "Welsh lord, the brave Duke of Devonshire," offers some opposition to Mr. Dixon's hypothesis, as no Duke of Devonshire was created before 1694; but, as Sir Walter Scott observed, upon a friend pointing out an inaccuracy in his "Bonnets of bonnie Dundee," "We cannot always be particular in a ballad." Possibly the name of some other country or place should be substituted for that of "Devonshire." Indeed I remember, some ten years ago, hearing a version of this ballad sung at a village in Staffordshire, where the "minstrel" (for he was a true descendant of the wandering tribe) used Hereford in the place of Devonshire.
There is an old ballad in Deloney's Garland of Good Will, upon the quarrel between the two Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk, in the reign of Richard II. See Hume's Hist. of Eng., chap. xvii., A.D. 1398, for a full account of the transaction. There seems to be some "relationship" between this "combat" and that of the Lord Delaware. At any rate, the following ballad smacks wonderfully (allowing for the march of time, and Mr. Lyle's "smoothing down") of the style of the "ballading silk-weaver," and his cotemporary poetasters.
"LORD DELAWARE.
"In the Parliament House, a great rout has been there,
Betwixt our good King and the Lord Delaware:
Says Lord Delaware to his Majesty full soon,
Will it please you, my Liege, to grant me a boon?
"What's your boon, says the King, now let me understand?
It's, give me all the poor men we've starving in this land;
And without delay, I'll hie me to Lincolnshire,