Ancient Poems [88]
(19) Fierce look.
(20) Descended from an ancient race famed for fighting.
(21) Assaulted. They were, although out of danger, terrified by the attacks of the sow, and their fear was shared by the kiln, which began to smoke!
(22) Watling-street, the Roman way from Catterick to Bowes.
(23) Lost his colour.
(24) Scott, not understanding this expression, has inserted 'Jesus' for the initials 'I. H. S.,' and so has given a profane interpretation to the passage. By a figure of speech the friar is called an I. H. S., from these letters being conspicuously wrought on his robes, just as we might call a livery-servant by his master's motto, because it was stamped on his buttons.
(25) The meaning here is obscure. The verse is not in Whitaker.
(26) Warlock or wizard.
(27) It is probable that by guest is meant an allusion to the spectre dog of Yorkshire (the BARGUEST), to which the sow is compared.
(28) Hired.
(29) The monastery of Gray Friars at Richmond. - See LELAND, ITIN., vol. iii, p. 109.
(30) This appears to have been a cant saying in the reign of Charles II. It occurs in several novels, jest books and satires of the time, and was probably as unmeaning as such vulgarisms are in general.
(31) A cake composed of oatmeal, caraway-seeds, and treacle. 'Ale and parkin' is a common morning meal in the north of England.
(32) We have heard a Yorkshire yeoman sing a version, which commenced with this line:-
' It was at the time of a high holiday.'
(33) Bell-ringing was formerly a great amusement of the English, and the allusions to it are of frequent occurrence. Numerous payments to bell-ringers are generally to be found in Churchwarden's accounts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. - CHAPPELL.
(34) The subject and burthen of this song are identical with those of the song which immediately follows, called in some copies THE CLOWN'S COURTSHIP, SUNG TO THE KING AT WINDSOR, and in others, I CANNOT COME EVERYDAY TO WOO. The Kentish ditty cannot be traced to so remote a date as the CLOWN'S COURTSHIP; but it probably belongs to the same period.
(35) The common modern copies read 'St. Leger's Round.'
(36) The common stall copies read 'Pan,' which not only furnishes a more accurate rhyme to 'Nan,' but is, probably, the true reading. About the time when this song was written, there appears to have been some country minstrel or fiddler, who was well known by the sobriquet of 'Pan.' Frequent allusions to such a personage may be found in popular ditties of the period, and it is evidently that individual, and not the heathen deity, who is referred to in the song of ARTHUR O'BRADLEY:-
'Not Pan, the god of the swains, Could e'er produce such strains.' - See ANTE, p. 142.
(37) A correspondent of NOTES AND QUERIES says that, although there is some resemblance between Flora and Furry, the latter word is derived from an old Cornish term, and signifies jubilee or fair.
(38) There is another version of these concluding lines:-
'Down the red lane there lives an old fox, There does he sit a-mumping his chops; Catch him, boys, catch him, catch if you can; 'Tis twenty to one if you catch him or Nan.'
(39) A cant term for a fiddle. In its literal sense, it means trunk, or box-belly.
(40) 'Helicon,' as observed by Sir C. Sharp, is, of course, the true reading.
(41) In the introduction of the 'prodigal son,' we have a relic derived from the old mysteries and moralities. Of late years, the 'prodigal son' has been left out, and his place supplied by a 'sailor.'
(42) Probably the disease here pointed at is the sweating sickness of old times.
(43) Robert Kearton, a working miner, and librarian and lecturer at the Grassington Mechanics' institution, informs us that at Coniston, in Lancashire, and the neighbourhood, the maskers go about at the proper season, viz., Easter. Their introductory song is different to the one given above. He has favoured us with two verses of the delectable composition; he says, 'I dare say they'll be