“This is a fragment of an apparently ancient ballad, related to me by a lady of Berwick-on-Tweed, who used to sing it in her childhood.  I have given all that she was able to furnish me with.  The same lady assures me that she never remembers having seen it in print [!!], and that she had learnt if from her nurse, together with the ballad of ’Sir Patrick Spens,’ and several Irish legends, since forgotten.”

P. 274. The Merchant’s Garland:—­

  “Syr Carnegie’s gane owre the sea,
    And’s plowing thro’ the main,
  And now must make a lang voyage,
    The red gold for to gain.”

This is evidently one of those ballads which calls Mr. Sheldon “godfather.” 
The original ballad, which has been “baptized and remodelled,” is called
“The Factor’s Garland.”  It begins in the following homely manner:—­

  “Behold here’s a ditty, ’tis true and no jest
  Concerning a young gentleman in the East,
  Who by his great gaming came to poverty,
  And afterwards went many voyages to sea.”

P. 329. The rare Ballad of Johnnie Faa:—­

  “There were seven gipsies in a gang,
    They were both brisk and bonny O;
  They rode till they came to the Earl of Castle’s house,
    And here they sang so sweetly O.”

This is a very hobbling version (from the recitation of a “gipsy vagabond”) of a ballad frequently reprinted.  It first appeared in Ramsay’s Tea-Table Miscellany; afterwards in Finlay’s and Chambers’ Collections.  None of these versions were known to Mr. Sheldon.

I have now extracted enough from the Minstrelsy of the English Border to show the mode of “ballad editing” as pursued by Mr. Sheldon.  The instances are sufficient to strengthen my position.

One of the most popular traditional ballads still {51} floating about the country, is “King Henrie the Fifth’s Conquest:”—­

  “As our King lay musing on his bed,
  He bethought himself upon a time,
  Of a tribute that was due from France,
  Had not been paid for so long a time.”

It was first printed from “oral communication,” by Sir Harris Nicolas, who inserted two versions in the Appendix to his History of the Battle of Agincourt, 2d edition, 8vo. 1832.  It again appeared (not from either of Sir Harris Nicolas’s copies) in the Rev. J.C.  Tyler’s Henry of Monmouth, 8vo. vol. ii. p. 197.  And, lastly, in Mr. Dixon’s Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England, printed by the Percy Society in 1846.  These copies vary considerably from each other, which cannot be wondered at, when we find that they were obtained from independent sources.  Mr. Tyler does not allude to Sir Harris Nicolas’s copies, nor does Mr. Dixon seem aware that any printed version of the traditional ballad had preceded his.  The ballad, however, existed in a printed “broad-side” long before the publications alluded to, and a copy, “Printed and sold in Aldermary Church Yard,” is now before me.  It is called “King Henry V., his Conquest of France in Revenge for the Affront offered by the French King in sending him (instead of the Tribute) a ton of Tennis Balls.”