entical pieces_ which have been handed down to us and
now form part of the "Mother Goose's Melodies" of the present day. It
contained also other pieces much more silly, if possible, and some that
the _American_ types of the present day would refuse to give off an
impression. The "cuts" or illustrations thereof were of the coarsest
description.

The first book of the kind known to be printed in this country bears the
title of "_Songs for the Nursery; or, Mother Goose's Melodies_ for
Children." Something probably intended to represent a goose with a very
long neck and mouth wide open, covered a large part of the title page,
at the bottom of which, Printed by T. Fleet, at his printing house,
Pudding lane, 1719. Price, two coppers. Several pages were missing,
so that the whole number could not be ascertained.

This T. Fleet, according to Isaiah Thomas, was a man of considerable
talent and of great wit and humor. He was born in England, and was
brought up in a printing office in the city of Bristol, where he
afterwards worked as a journeyman. Although he was considered a man
of sense, he was never thought to be overburdened with religious
sentiments; he certainly was not in his latter days. Yet he was _more_
than suspected of being actively engaged in the riotous proceedings
connected with the trial of Dr. Sacheverell, in Queen Ann's time. In
London, Bristol, and many other places, the mobs and riots were of a
very serious nature. In London several meeting houses were sacked and
pulled down, and the materials and contents made into bonfires, and much
valuable property destroyed. Several of the rioters were arrested, tried
and convicted. The trials of some of them are now before me. How deeply
Fleet was implicated in these disturbances was never known, but being
of the same mind with Jack Falstaff, that "the better part of valor is
discretion," thought it prudent to put the Ocean between himself and
danger. He made his way to this country and arrived in Boston, 1712.
Being a man of some enterprise he soon established a printing office
in Pudding lane (now Devonshire street), where he printed small books,
pamphlets, ballads, and such matter as offered. Being industrious and
prudent, he gradually accumulated property. It was not long before he
became acquainted with the "wealthy family of Goose," a branch of which
he had before known in Bristol, and was shortly married to the eldest
daughter.

By the record of marriages in t