165 A coller, a coller, here: fayd the king, A coller he loud gan crye: He had not beene so nighe. 170 A coller, a coller, the tanner he fayd, I trowe it will breed sorrowe: I trow I shall be hang'd to-morrowe. Be not afraid Tanner, said our king; I tell thee, so mought I thee, That is in the North countrie *. 175 For Plumpton-parke I will give thee, With tenenients faire beside : 180 * * Gramercye, my liege, the tanner replyde, For the favour thou halt me showne ; Neates leather Mall clout thy Noen. * This fianza is restored from a quotation of this Ballad in Selden's « Titles of Honour," who produces it as a good authority to prove, that sre mode of creating Esquires at that time, was by the imposition of COLLAR, His words are, “ Nor is that old pamphlet of the Tanner of « Tamworth and King Edward the Fourth fo contemptible, but that wee may thence note also art observable pasage, wberein the use of making Esquires, by giving Collars, is expressed.” (Sub Tit. Ejquire; vide in Spelmanni Glosar. Armiger.) This form of creating Esquires ac.. tually exists at this day among the Serjeants at Årms, who are invested with a Collar (which they wear on Collar Days) by the King bimself. This information I owe to Samuel Pegge, Esq. to whom the Pulilick is indebted for that curious work the CURIALIA, 480. XVI. AS XVI. AS YE CAME FROM THE HOLY LAND. DIALOGUE BETWEEN A PILGRIM AND TRAVELLER. The scene of this song is the same as in Num. XIV. The pilgrimage to Wallingham suggested the plan of many popular pieces. In the Pepys collection, Vol. I. p. 226, is e kind of Interlude in the old ballad Ryle, of which the forf stanza alone is worth reprinting. As I went to Walsingham, To the Shrine with speede, In a pilgrimes weede. " Welcome, lady gay, -Oft have I said you nay. The pilgrimages undertaken on pretence of religion, were often productive of affairs of gallantry, and led the votaries to no other shrine than that of Venus * The following ballad was once very popular; it is quoted in Fletcher's “ Knt. of the burning pestle," A& II. fc. zlt. and in another old play, called, “ Hans Beer-pot, bis invisible Comedy, &c.” 4to. 1618; AE 1.—The copy belos was communicated to the Editor by the late Mr. Shenfione as corrected by him from an ancient copy, and supplied with a concluding stanza. * Even in the time of Langland, pilgrimages to Wallingham were not unfavourable to the rites of Venus. Thus in his Visions of Piace Plowman, fo. i. Hermets on a heape, witb Hoked (tabes, fie, their, We have placed this, and Gentle HERDSMAN, &c. thus early in the volume, upon a presumption that they must have been written, if not before the dissolution of the monasteries, yet while the remembrance of them was fresh in the minds of the people. " How should I know your true love, « That have met many a one, 66 As I came from the holy land, 66 That have both come, and gone?" 10 My love is neither white *, nor browne, But as the heavens faire ; Either in earth, or ayre. • Such an one did I meet, good sir, 6 With an angelicke face ; 6 Both in her gait, her grace.” 15 Yes: The hath cleane forsaken me, And left me all alone; And called me her owne. 20 “ What is the cause she leaves thee thus, « And a new way doth take, “ That some times loved thee as her life, " And thee her joy did make ?” I that loved her all my youth, Growe old now as you see; Love liketh not the falling fruite, Nor yet the withered tree, For love is like a carelesse childe, Forgetting promise past: His faith is never fast. His fond desire is fickle found, And yieldes a trustlesse joye; Wonne with a world of toil and care, And lost ev'n with a toye. 5 Such is the love of womankinde, Or Loves faire name abufde, Beneathe which many vaine desires, And follyes are excusde. 40 • But true love is a lasting fire, • Which viewless vestals * tend, « That burnes for ever in the soule, . And knowes nor change, nor end.' XVII. HARDY KNUT E. on. As this fine morsel of beroic poetry hath generally past for ancient, it is here thrown to the end of our earliest pieces; that such as doubt of its age, may the better compare it with other pieces of genuine antiquity. For after all, there is more than reason to fufpect, that it owes most of its beauties (if not its whole exifience) to the pen of a lady, within the present century. The following particulars may be depended Mrs. Wardlar, whose maiden name was Halket (aunt : to the late Sir Peter Halket, of Pitferran, in Scotland, who was killed in America, along with general Bradock, in 1755), pretended she had found this poem, written on fireds of paper, employed for what is called the bottoins of clues. A suspicion arose that it was her ozun compofition. Some able judges aserted it to be modern. The lady did in a man. ner acknowledge it to be jo. Being defired to thew an additional fanza, as a proof of this, the produced the 2 last beginning with “ There's nae light,' &c. which were not in the copy that was first printed. The late Lord Prefident Forbes, and Sir Gilbert Elliot, of Minto (late Lord Justice Clerk for Scotland) who had believed it ancient, contributed to the expence of publishing the first Edition, in folio, 1719.—This account was transmitted from Scotland by Sir David Dalrymple, the late Lord Hailes, who yet was of opinion, that part of the ballad may be ancient; but retouched and much enlarged by the lady abovementioned. Indeed he had been informed, that the late William Thompfon, the Scottisli musician, who published the ORPHEUS CALEDONIUS, 1733, 2 vols. Svo. declared he had heard Fragments of it repeated in his infancy, before Mis. Wardlaw's 's copy was heard of. The |