Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/330

 268 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 S.X.AP RIL 8 ,i9. except where other sources of 'information have been quoted. JOHN B. WAINEWKIGHT. WESTMINSTER AND ST. MARTIN'S-IN-THE- FIELDS. As showing how very carefully even the public records must be read and studied, I quote a few words from a King's Memoranda Roll (Hillary, XIX. Edward II.) : Willielmus Abbas Westmonasterii Sancti Petri in parochia Sancti Martini in Campis. This passage might fairly be taken to mean that in 1326, Westminster (with its parish church of St. Margaret) was in the parish of St. Martin, and, in fact, that St. Martin's was even the mother-church of St. Margaret's. The Rev. H. F. Westlake, F.S.A., in his * St. Margaret's, Westminster,' though the origin or the early history of St. Martin's has not been traced, gives ample reasons which militate against any such conclusion. Light on the mystery of the quoted entry is thrown in the Close Roll for the very same regnal year in a passage concerning the same Abbot William Curtlyngton. Therein we learn that divers tenths and other grants of the King should be restored to William, Abbot of West- minster, inasmuch as the King has in his hands, and has had since his, the Abbot's, creation, all his lands in the parish of St. Marlin-in-the-Fields. CHARLES SWYNNERTON. Bos WELL'S ' LIFE OF JOHNSON.' In Dr. George Birkbeck Hill's edition of Boswell's missed the chance to insert a most delightful note on a song which was evidently a favorite with the playgoers of the eighteenth century. The reference occurs in vol. iii., pp. 285-6, of Dr. Hill's edition : Ramsay. When (man) is at rest, he is in the worst state that he can be in ; for he has nothing to agitate him. He is then like- the man in the Irish song, " There lived a young man in Ballinacrazy Who wanted a wife for to make him unaisy." This song is discussed in Chappell's ' Popular Music of the Olden Time,' ii. 713-4. The earlier names given to the tune, which Chappell traced as far back as 1729, are, ' No more, fair virgins, boast your power,' and ' The Golden Days of Good Queen Bess,' but it seems to have become chiefly famous when adapted by Foote to his song, ' Ally Croaker,' sung to the guitar by Miss Macklin in Foote's comedy, ' The Englishman in Paris,' in 1753. Chappell gives the first verse thus : There lived a man in Ballymecrazy Who wanted a wife to make him unaisy ; I And thus the gentle youth bespoke her : Arrah, will you marry me, dear Ally Croaker ? Arrah, will you marry me, dear Ally Croaker ? It is no wonder that Boswell alluded so familiarly to the song ; all his world knew it well, as we can see from the anecdote about it which Boswell treasured up in his " collection of good things," ' Boswelliana.' The story appears on p. 232 of Dr. Charles Rogers' s edition of this lively commonplace j book, thus : When Sir Adam Fergusson was at Diisseldorf j he admired much an organ in one of the churches, and wished greatly to hear an English tune upon it. 1 merchant at Dunkirk, was there. He begged 1 of the organist to give him liberty to play the j solemn music very gravely, but by way of volun- i tary he gave ' Ally Croaker.' He, however, I adorned it with several variations, so that the organist said, " Monsieur, en que c'est un beau merceau." The tune is well adapted to this quiet joke, being an alternation of monotonous staccato notes and simple runs, with a sudden lengthening of notes in the refrain ; it will perhaps be best remembered as the tune to which George Colman wrote that insouciant tragedy, ' Unfortunate Miss Bailey.' M. BAILEY, Fellow in the Department of English, Yale University. THE KING'S PRINTING HOUSE, THAMES STREET, 1653. Among the ' Parliamentary Surveys ' for Middlesex in the Augmentation Office series is a document of some interest since it concerns the King's Printing House, situated in Thames Street. In the old official list, drawn up by Dr. Ducarel, and in the list published in 1787 based thereon, entitled ' An Account of all the Manors, &c.,. . . held on lease from the Crown. . . also, a Calendar of the Surveys of the Estates of King Charles the Frst. . .during the Interregnum,' this particular piece of property is entered, but without number or date, yet forty-ninth in sequence, as " Thames Street, a Certificate concerning the King's Printing House there" (Appen- dix No. III., p. 85, col. 3). Again, in the list of 1847 ('Eighth Report of Deputy Keeper of the Public Records,' Appendix II., No. 2, p. 58), it is referred to as " Thames
 * DEAR ALLY CROAKER ' : A NOTE ON
 * Life of Johnson,' that excellent scholar
 * Long had he sighed for Ally Croaker,
 * Barnard (nephew to the great Sir John, and) a
 * vespers, which he agreed to. Barnard played the