"For Plumpton-Park I will give thee,
With tenements fair beside,-

'Tis worth three hundred marks by the year,-
To maintain thy good cow-hide."

"Gramercy, my liege," the tanner replied;
"For the favour thou hast me shown,
If ever thou comest to merry Tamworth,

Neat's leather shall clout thy shoon.'

The King and the Tanner of Tamworth was a story of great fame among our ancestors. The author of the Art of English Poesie, 1589, 4to, seems to speak of it as a real fact. Describing that vicious mode of speech, which the Greeks called Acyron, i. e. "When we use a dark and obscure word, utterly repugnant to that we should express;" he adds, "Such manner of uncouth speech did the Tanner of Tamworth use to King Edward the Fourth; which Tanner, having a great while mistaken him, and used very broad talke with him, at length perceiving by his traine that it was the king, was afraide he should be punished for it, [and] said thus, with a certain rude repentance,

'I hope I shall be hanged to-morrow,'

for [I feare me] I shall be hanged; whereat the king laughed a good, not only to see the Tanner's vaine feare, but also to heare his illshapen terme: and gave him for recompence of his good sport, the inheritance of Plumpton-parke. I am afraid,” concludes

this sagacious writer, “the poets of our times that speake more finely and correctedly, will come too short of such a reward.”p. 214. The phrase here referred to is not found in this ballad at present, but occurs with some variation in another old poem, entitled, John the Reeve, described in the following volume.-See the Preface to The King and the Miller, viz.

"Nay, sayd John, by Gods grace
And Edward wer in this place,

Hee shold not touch this tonne.

He wold be wroth with John I HOPE,

Thereffore I beshrew the soupe,

That in his mouth shold come."-Pt. ii. st. 24.

The following text is selected (with such other corrections as occurred) from two copies in black letter. The one in the Bodleian library, entitled, "A merrie, pleasant, and delectable historie betweene King Edward the Fourth, and a Tanner of Tamworth, &c., printed at London by John Danter, 1596." This copy, ancient as it now is, appears to have been modernised and altered at the time it was published; and many vestiges of the more ancient readings were recovered from another copy (though more recently printed), in one sheet folio, without date, in the Pepys Collection.

But these are both very inferior in point of antiquity to the old ballad of The King and the Barker, reprinted with other "Pieces of Ancient Popular Poetry from Authentic Manuscripts, and old Printed Copies, edited by Ritson," Lond. 1791, 8vo. As that very antique poem had never occurred to the Editor of the Reliques, till he saw it in the above collection, he now refers the curious reader to it, as an imperfect and incorrect copy of the old original ballad.

HARDYKNUTE.

A SCOTTISH FRAGMENT.

I.

TATELY stepped he east the wa',
And stately stepped he west,
Full seventy years he now had seen,
Wi' scarce seven years of rest.
He liv'd when Briton's breach of faith
Wrought Scotland mickle wae,

And ay his sword tauld to the cost,
He was their deadlye fae.

II.

High on a hill his castle stood,
With ha's and tow'rs a height,
And goodly chambers fair to se,
Where he lodged mony a knight.

His dame sae peerless anes and fair,
For chaste and beauty deem'd,
Nae marrow1 had in all the land,

Full thirteen sons to him she bare,
All men of valour stout:
In bloody fight with sword in hand
Nine lost their lives bot2 doubt:
Four yet remain, lang may they live
To stand by liege and land :

High was their fame, high was their might,
And high was their command.

IV.

Great love they bare to FAIRLY fair,
Their sister saft and dear,

Her girdle show'd her middle gimp,3
And gowden glist her hair.
What waefu' wae her beauty bred?
Waefu' to young and auld,
Waefu' I trow to kith and kin,
As story ever tauld.

1 Mate.]

2 [Without.]

[Slender.]

4 [Glistened.]

V.

The King of Norse in summer tide,
Puff'd up with pow'r and might,

Landed in fair Scotland the isle
With mony a hardy knight.

The tydings to our good Scots king
Came as he sat at dine
With noble chiefs in brave array,
Drinking the blood-red wine.

VI.