Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/228

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NOTES AND QUERIES, uo* s. v. MARCH 10, igoe.

^Norwich. Joseph Cranford, 1659.

William Nowell, 1661.

George Rose, 1686.

Henry Cosgrove, printer, 1711.

W. Chase, printer, 1711.

Mrs. Oliver, 1711-25.

Thos. Goddard, Market Place, 1711-19.

J. Carlos, 1740 5.

J. Gleed, 1745-50.

Widow of W. Chase, printer, 1746.

W. Chase, printer, Cockney Lane, 1746-65.

Christopher Berry, Dove Lane, 1767-

J. Grouse, printer, 1780.

N. Booth, 1780. Nottingham, Joseph Howe, 1689.

William Ayscough, printer, 1710-14.

William Ward (early eighteenth century).

J. Collyer, printer, 1714.

A. Ayscough, printer, 1731.

Thomas Collier, 1736.

J. Ward, 1745.

W. C. B. (To be concluded.)

BALLAD BY REGINALD HEBER.

You may care to have a note of an ex tremely scarce book by the man who became Bishop of Calcutta. It is entitled ' A Ballad 'by the Revd. Reginald Heber, late Bishop ol Calcutta,' and is printed in lithography by W. Crane, of Chester, an ancestor of the Mr. Walter Crane of to-day. The page next to the title reads as follows: "An Old and Approved Receipt for Raising the Devil, iounded on Tradition, and now Offered to the Public by An Amateur of The Black Arte."

The poem is in nine verses, as follows :

I.

Attend, ye gay dames, to the tale I am telling, Of proud Dinas Bran and the wealthy Llewellyn, Whose heart was intent upon witchcraft and evil, And he never could sleep but he dreamt of the Devil.

2.

True, the soul of Llewellyn was glad beyond

measure As he clomb to his turret, and hung o'er his

treasure

His vassals thronged round him obsequious in duty, And bright was the morn of his Imogen's beauty ; But he swore that the pleasures of life he would

spurn all, Could he compass a sight of his Highness Infernal.

3.

He turned o'er the books of his Elders in sin, And found that with murder he first must begin, So the Vicar he slew, nor with Hell was he daunted, For who could fear Hell who wished to be haunted ?

4.

He plucked off the wig with his homicide hands, And he muttered fell charms as he tore off his bands, And he severed the head as the head of a Swine, And dire was the snort of the groaning divine. Then he soused the broad cheeks in a Caldron so

hot Till the Vicar-Broth bubbled and boiled in the Pot.

Three ling'ring days in the magical kettle, He allowed the last lees of the numscull to settle, Then bade the warm breath of the pestilent Sun To bleach the dire grave-wax which death had

begun.

6.

He stirred ^yith his dagger the strong smelling tub, And Oh ! with what transport he turned up a grub ! He caught the dear reptile, and kissed it and

nursed it,

And laid it up warm in a stocking of worsted, And bade it increase till, my tale to cut short all, It grew to a Dragon whose poison was mortal.

What hoping, what hissing, what fearing, what

^rinning, lewellyn the life of the Dragon was winning ! The Monster was grim, but the Baron was wise, And he caught at the nape of his neck by surprise ; Then in hopes of the prize that awaited his courage He stewed the poor serpent once more into porridge.

8.

With fat of the Hell-Broth so green and so damp, And so winding-sheet wick, and a scull for a lamp, And the hinge of a Coffin for knife and for fork, He supped on a horrible meal of raw Pork.

9.

His breath it came thick, and his hair bristled high, As the hour of the fiend's assignation drew nigh, And he wished, yet he durst not adventure to pray, Then turned in despair from the Altar away. And the moon was gone down, and the shadows

were deep, And the groans of the murdered seemed round him

to creep, And the phantoms were seen thro' the lamplight to

flit. And he saw what, the Devil? The Devil a bit.

Finis.

Here follow eight illustrations vigorously descriptive of the horrors of the poem. The first only bears a signature VR in the right- hand corner. I should be glad to know who the artist was and also the date of publica- tion.

The first question that suggests itself is, Who was W. Crane ? The bishop was born at Mai pas Vicarage, Cheshire, on 21 April, 1783, and left England, on his appointment bo Calcutta, in 1823, and died suddenly at Trichinopoly on 3 April, 1826. As he is de- scribed as "late Bishop of Calcutta "on the title-page of the poem, the book was ap- parently printed after 1826. Thomas Crane, aookselier, was sworn free of Chester City on 13 October, 1812. Messrs. T. & W. Crane were the lithographers for the extremely scarce first edition of Mr. Rowland Egerton- Warburton's ' Hunting Songs' in 1836. It is therefore likely that W. Crane carried on the

ork after his partner's death. I should be glad of more definite information on these opics. T. CANN HUGHES, MA., F.S.A.

Lancaster.