touches which seem to me to come from Howell (see my note _ad
loc._), while it is not impossible he may have come across Elder's book,
which was illustrated by Cruikshank. The Grimms give the legend in their
_Deutsche Sagen_ (ed. 1816, 330-33), and in its native land it has given
rise to an elaborate poem _a la_ Scheffel by Julius Wolff, which has in
its turn been the occasion of an opera by Victor Nessler. Mrs. Gutch, in
an interesting study of the myth in _Folk-Lore_ iii., pp. 227-52, quotes
a poem, _The Sea Piece_, published by Dr. Kirkpatrick in 1750, as
showing that a similar legend was told of the Cave Hill, Belfast.

Here, as Tradition's hoary legend tells,
A blinking Piper once with magic Spells
And strains beyond a vulgar Bagpipe's sounds
Gathered the dancing Country wide around.
When hither as he drew the tripping Rear
(Dreadful to think and difficult to swear!)
The gaping Mountain yawned from side to side,
A hideous Cavern, darksome, deep, and wide;
In skipt th' exulting Demon, piping loud,
With passive joy succeeded by the Crowd.

* * * * *

There firm and instant closed the greedy Womb,
Where wide-born Thousands met a common Tomb.

_Remarks._--Mr. Baring-Gould, in his _Curious Myths of the Middle Ages_,
has explained the Pied Piper as a wind myth. Mrs. Gutch is inclined to
think there may be a substratum of fact at the root of the legend,
basing her conclusions on a pamphlet of Dr. Meinardus, _Der historische
Kern_, which I have not seen. She does not, however, give any
well-authenticated historical event at Hameln in the thirteenth century
which could have plausibly given rise to the legend, nor can I find any
in the _Urkundenbuch_ of Hameln (Luneberg, 1883). The chief question of
interest attaching to the English form of the legend as given in 1839 by
Elder, is whether it is independent of the German myth. It does not
occur in any of the local histories of the Isle of Wight which I have
been able to consult of a date previous to Elder's book--_e.g._, J.
Hassel, _Tour of the Isle of Wight_, 1790. Mr. Shore, in his _History of
Hampshire_, 1891, p. 185, refers to the legend, but evidently bases his
reference on Elder, and so with all the modern references I have seen.
Now Elder himself quotes Verstegan in his comments on the legend, pp.
168-9 and note, and it is impossible to avoid conjecturing that he
adap