James I., nor of the Commonwealth, could it have
originated. His transcript from Mr. Collier's _Extracts_ carries it
undeniably back to the middle of the reign of Elizabeth. Of course, it
is interesting to find intermediate versions or variations of the
ballad, and even the adaptation of its framework to other ballads of
recent times, such as "Heigho! says Kemble,"--one of the Drury Lane
"O.P. Row" ballads (_Rejected Addresses_, last ed., or Cunningham's
_London_). Why the conjecture respecting Henry VIII. is so
contemptuously thrown aside as a "fancy," I do not see. A _fancy_ is a
dogma taken up without proof, and in the teeth of obvious
probability,--tenaciously adhered to, and all investigation eschewed.
This at least is the ordinary signification of the term, in relation to
the search after truth. How far my own conjecture, or the mode of
putting it, fulfills these conditions, it is not necessary for me to
discuss: but I hope the usefulness and interest of the "NOTES AND
QUERIES" will not be marred by any discourtesy of one correspondent
towards another.

At the same time, the HERMIT OF HOLYPORT has done the most essential
service to this inquiry by his extract from Mr. Collier, as the question
is thereby inclosed within exceedingly narrow limits. But if the ballad
do not refer to Henry VIII., to whom can it be referred with greater
probability? It is too much to assume that all the poetry, wit, and
talent of the Tudor times were confined to the partizans of the Tudor
cause, religious or political. We _know_, indeed, the contrary. But for
his communication, too, the singular coincidence of two such
characteristic words of the song in the "Poley Frog" (in the same number
of the "NOTES AND QUERIES") might have given rise to another conjecture:
but the _date_ excludes its further consideration.

I may add, that since this has been mooted, an Irish gentleman has told
me that the song was familiar enough in Dublin; and he repeated some
stanzas of it, which were considerably different from the version of
W.A.G., and the chorus the same as in the common English version. I hope
presently to receive a complete copy of it: which, by the bye, like
everything grotesquely humorous in Ireland, was attributed to the author
of _Gulliver's Travels_.

T.S.D.

* * * * *

"JUNIUS IDENTIFIED."

It is fortunate for my reputation that I am still living to vindicate my
title to the authorship of my o