Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/331

 ii s. iv. OCT. 21, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

325

'HOWDEN FAIR.'

THE manuscript of which I give a transcript below is a song which, I believe, has not hitherto been printed. I have for many years made inquiries about it, but have never heard of it except from those Lincolnshire folk who were in the habit of going to the fair, and not one of them has ever seen it in print. The copy before me is, I think, about eighty years old. Two persons have taken part in the writing.

HOWDEN PAIR Tune Nancy Dawson.

It's I have been to Howden Pair,

And O what sights did I see there ;

To hear my Tale will make you stare

And see the horses showing.

They come from East, they come from West,

And some they lead, and drive the rest

Unto the fair at Howden.

Tal lal lal, Talrared, unto the fair at Howden.

All ages, too, as I'm alive, Prom one to two to thirty-five, And some they scarce could lead or drive, Or in the Streets could show them. There was blind and lame & wingalled, too, Crib-biters there were not a few, And Roarers more than one or two All at the fair at Howden.

Tal lal lal lal la ra le over again, all at the fair at Howden.

There were blacks and bays, and duns and greys, And sorreled horses, aye and mares, And Pyeballed, too, I do declair, And more than I do know on ; Broken winded too I saw, And some for panting scarce could go, And there were clickers too I know, All at the fair at Howden. Chorus.

Now some upon the stones were shown, And others found upon soft ground While up the Hill their heads were thrown, And that's the way to show them. They can gain or lose an inch or two By managing the Hoof or shoe ; Oh they this, and more can do, All at the fair at Howden.

Then the Dealers through the streets did splash,

And swing round them a long whip lash,

And say, my lads, come stand a slash

And let's have room to show them.

They'l crack their whips and curse & swear,

And cry, my lads, be of good chear,

Now this, my boys, is Howden fair.

How do you like the fair at Howden ?

EDWARD PEACOCK, F.S.A. Kirton-in-Lindsey.

WORDSWORTH : " QUAM NIHIL AD GENIUM, PAPINIANE, TUUM ! " As resident in Cam- bridge, and for many years librarian of Wordsworth's own college, St. John's, I have more than once been asked where the

following " quotation," on the title-page of the second volume of the fourth edition of his ' Lyrical Ballads ' (1805), comes from :

Quam nihil ad genium, Papiniane, tuum 1 On the assumption that it was a quotation, I asked others. But as none of our best- read scholars, including the late Prof. J. E. B. Mayor, was able to solve the diffi- culty, I ultimately came to the conclusion that it is not a quotation, but a line composed by Wordsworth himself or suggested to him by Coleridge. What appeared, however,, especially to point to this conclusion was the fact recorded by the poet's nephew and bio- grapher (the former Bishop of Lincoln), that Wordsworth had at one time aspired to entering the legal profession (' Life of Wordsworth,' ii. 466). For, if such were the case, it is easy to understand that, in the course of his reading, or possibly when attending lectures at Cambridge, he could hardly have failed to become familiar with the name of Papinianns as that of the greatest of the earlier Roman jurists, the vast- ness of whose labours, when compared with Wordsworth's first poetical compositions- (if, indeed, such a comparison were possible), might well suggest to the poet the plaintive admission contained in the above line.

J. BASS MULLINGER. Cambridge.

[The line occurs in Selden's introductory address. " From the Author of the Illustrations " to- Drayton's ' Polyolbion.' See Mr. T. Hutchin- son's note on ' Untraced Mottoes in Wordsworth ' in The Athenceum for 24 December, 1898 ; and the article by COL. W. F. PBIDEAUX at 10 S. v. 116.]

THACKERAY AND A CHILD. MR. FRANCIS'S recent articles on Thackeray have recalled to my memory an incident of childhood.

I had, in Yorkshire, a very dear girl friend. She possessed an uncle of literary attainments, and she used to tell me of a. great gentleman who came one day to his- house when she was very little. After the fashion of those times, she was asked to- repeat something to the guest. He took her on his knee, and she recited a child's- tiymn. When she had finished, he said in a husky voice, " Thank you, my dear,' r and kissed her, as he set her down. There were tears in his eyes. The gentleman's- name was William Makepeace Thackeray.

I give the story as I always heard it ;. and, growing older, I used to try in vain, to reconcile it with the name " cynic '" as applied to Thackeray.

LILY WATSON.