Bluegrass Messengers

To the REV. THOMAS PERCY,[1] Tuesday 5 February 1765

[Printed from a photostat of the MS in the British Museum (Add. MS 32,329, ff. 24-6). First printed, Toynbee vi. 181-5. The MS passed to Percy's descendants until it was sold Sotheby's 29 April 1884 (Percy Sale), lot 214 (with other letters to Percy), to Quaritch for the British Museum. Address: To the Reverend Mr Percy at Easton Mauduit Northamptonshire by Wellingborough bag. Postmark: 5 FE. FREE . Frank: Free Hor. Walpole. Arlington Street, Feb. 5th 1765.]

Sir,
I HAVE received from Mr Dodsley[2] the flattering and very agreeable present of the Reliques of Ancient Poetry;[3] and though I have not had time yet to read the whole carefully, yet the transient perusal has given me so much pleasure, that I am impatient to make you my most grateful acknowledgments for so particular a favour. As I am personally unknown to you, Sir, I must regard it as a great distinction; and though you are so kind as to mark the cause of that distinction,[4] I cannot help fearing that you are too partial to me even as an author, and that the honour you have in several places done to my Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, is much beyond what that compilation deserves. Since however that collection has merited your notice, may I not hope, Sir, that you will not confine it to my book, but that when you come to London, you will let m e have the honour of your acquaintance?[5]

Before I have the pleasure, that I promise myself, of talking over with you a thousand curious things in your new publication, permit me, Sir, to mention a few points that particularly struck me. The good sense and conciseness of your dissertations[6] persuade me that these are not your sole productions.[7] I would not take the liberty to ask any impertinent questions, but you must allow me to hope that with so much knowledge, so accurate and judicious a talent for criticism, and so just a style, you will not confine yourself to this single publication nor to the mere office of an editor. Your observation on Lord Vaux[8] appears to me strongly founded. His poetry, as you remark, is undoubtedly more polished than is consonant to the age of Henry VII.[9] You know my authorities, Sir, for ascribing those poems to Lord Nicholas:[10] yet I prefer truth to any trifles of m y own writing, and am willing to sacrifice my own account to what is more probable. If it is not too much to ask, I could wish, as I have little leisure, Sir, that you could ascertain this point for me, and even demonstrate to which specific Lord Vaux the poems belong. There is another of my noble authors, about whom I interest myself strangely; Lord Rochford.[11] Have you, Sir, in your researches ever met with any lines that you believe to be his?

I was not more pleased with anything than with your proofs, for so they certainly are, that Shakespeare's plays ought to be distinguished into histories, tragedies and comedies, and with your very just reflections on that subject.[12] They are a full answer to all Voltaire's impertinent criticisms[13] on our matchless poet. The beginning of the second part of Sir Cauline,[14] as no doubt, Sir, you have observed, resembles the story of Tancred and Sigismonda; [15] as the ditty of Glasgerion[16] seems evidently to have given birth to the tragedy of The Orphan,[17] in which Polidore profits of Monimia's intended favours to Castalio.[18]

I will not make this first letter too long. With it I enclose an old ballad, which I write down from memory, and perhaps very incorrectly, for it is above five and twenty years since I learned it. I do not send it to you, Sir, as worthy to be published,[19] but merely as an addition to your collection, if it is not there already. I remember to have heard another, which was the exact counterpart to it, called Giles Colin,[20] but I do not recollect a single stanza. If it should ever lie within m y slender power to assist your studies or inquiries, I hope, Sir, you will command me. I love the cause, I have a passion for antiquity and literary amusements, and though I much doubt whether I shall ever engage in them again, farther than for m y own private entertainment, I shall always be glad to contribute my mite to any gentleman, whose abilities and taste demand, like yours, to be encouraged.

I am Sir
Your much obliged humble servant
HOR. WALPOLE

[enclosure]

THE BALLAD OF LADY HOUNSIBELLE AND LORD LOVEL[21]

I fare you well, Lady Hounsibelle,
For I must needs be gone;
And this time two year I'll meet you again,
To end the true love we begun.

That's a long time, Lord Lovel, she said,
T o dwell in fair Scotland:
And so it is, Lady Hounsibelle,
And to leave a fair lady alone.

He called unto his stable-groom
To saddle his milk-white steed;
Hey down, Hey down, Hey, hey derry down,
I wish m y Lord Lovel good speed.

He had not been in fair Scotland
Above half a year,
But a longing mind came over his head,
Lady Hounsibelle he would go see her.

He had not been in fair London
Above half a day,
But he heard the bells of the high chapel ring;
They rung with a sesora.

He asked of a gentleman,
That stood there all alone,
What made the bells of the high chapel ring,
And the ladies to make such a moan.

The King's fair daughter is dead, he said,
Whose name's Lady Hounsibelle;
for love of a courteous young knight,
Whose name it is Lord Lovel.

Lady Hounsibelle died on the Easterday,
Lord Lovel on the morrow;
Lady Hounsibelle died for pure true love,
Lord Lovel he died for sorrow.

Lady Hounsibelle's buried in the chancel,
Lord Lovel in the choir;
Lady Hounsibelle's breast sprung up a rose,
Lord Lovel's a branch of sweet briar.

They grew till they grew to the top of the church,
And when they could grow no higher,
They grew till they grew to a true lover's knot,
And they both were tied together.

There came an old woman by,
Their blessing she did crave;
She cut her a branch of this true lover's knot,
And buried 'em both in a grave.[22]

Footnotes:

1. (1729-1811), vicar of Easton Maudit, Northants, 1753, and rector of Wilby, Northants, 1756; dean of Carlisle, 1778-82; Bp of Dromore 1782-1811.

2. James Dodsley (1724-97), bookseller, whose older brother Robert had died in 1764; HW's occasional correspondent.

3. The announcement of Percy's forthcoming work had appeared in the London Chronicle 29-31 Jan. 1765, xvii. 106: 'In a few days will be published . . . Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. Consisting of old heroic ballads, songs, and other pieces of our earlier poets (chiefly in the lyric kind) together with some few of later date.' Publication of the three volumes by Dodsley was announced in the Chronicle 9-12 Feb., xvii. 151 (DALRYMPLE 106 n. 5). HW's presentation copy of the first edition, perhaps given away when he acquired later editions, does not appear in the SH records. His copies, now WSL, of the second edition, 1767 (a present from Percy), and the fourth edition, 1794, are Hazen, Cat. of HW's Lib., Nos 2919 and 3455.

4. Doubtless in Percy's presentation inscription. The inscription in HW's copy of the second edition reads: 'To the Honourable Horace Walpole, these volumes containing specimens of the composition of some of his royal and noble authors are presented with great respect by the Editor.' Percy acknowledges his debt to Royal and Noble Authors, SH, 1758, in several places.

5. Percy wrote his friend Richard Farmer, who had given him substantial assistance with the Reliques, 10 Feb. 1765:
I have received two very flattering letters from two great favourites with the public (I mean as writers) viz. Lord Lyttleton and Mr Hor. Walpole; to whom I sent copies of my book: having by poor Shenstone been introduced to some acquaintance with the former: and wanting to commence one with the latter, (who by the bye answers my intentions in the most agreeable manner)' (The Correspondence of Thomas Percy and Richard Farmer, ed. Cleanth Brooks, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1946, pp. 82-3).

6. The Reliques included four essays on the ancient English minstrels, the origin of the English stage, the metre of Piers Plowman's Visions, and the ancient metrical romances. 'The dissertations too I think are sensible, concise, and unaffected' (H W to Joseph Warton post 16 March 1765).

7. Percy had published several earlier works. H W later acquired one of these: Miscellaneous Pieces Relating to the Chinese, 1762 (Hazen, op. cit., No. 1578).

8. Thomas Vaux (1509-56), 2d Bn Vaux of Harrowden, 1523.

9. See 'Additions and Corrections,' Reliques, 1765, iii. 335-7.

10. On the authority of Anthony a Wood, H W had attributed the poems to Lord Vaux's father, Sir Nicholas Vaux (ca 1460-1523), cr. (1523) Bn Vaux. See CHATTERTON 366 n. 20.

11. George Boleyn (d. 1536), styled Vet Rochford; brother of Anne Boleyn. See COLE i. 357-8; MASON i. 191.

12. In the essay 'On the Origin of the English Stage, etc.,' Reliques i. 127.

13. Notably in Letter XVIII, 'Sur la tragedie,' of his Lettres philosophiques, 1734. See post 21 June 1768

14. Reliques i. 44-53.

15. In Boccaccio's Decameron; also the subject of Dryden's Sigismonda and Guiscardo.

16. Reliques iii. 43-8.

17. By Thomas Otway, first produced at the Dorset Garden Theatre in Feb. 1680 (London Stage Pt I, i. 285).

18. In the second edition of the Reliques iii. 43, Percy added this note:
'An ingenious friend thinks that the following old ditty [Glasgerion] . . . may possibly have given birth to the tragedy of the Orphan, in which Polidore intercepts Monimia's intended favours to Castalio.'

19. Percy did not include it in his second edition.

20. This ballad, with the title Lady Alice, appears in several versions in English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. F. J. Child, Boston, 1882-98, ii. 279-80, iii. 514-15, v. 225-6. It has the title Giles Collins and Proud Lady Anna in Gammer Gurton's Garland, 1810, pp. 38-9.

21. In the MS this title has been added by Percy.

22. 'NB. Compare this song with Giles Collin, Fair Margaret and Sweet William, Lord Thomas and Fair Annet' in Percy's hand). The ballad, with many variations from HW's text, is printed Lord Lovel in Child's Ballads ii. 207.