Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/11

 12 s. vm. JAN. i, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. and Genuine Character of Dean Swift, ' ' A Christmas-box for Namby-Pamby,' ' Hard- ing's Resurrection from Hell upon Earth,' and ' A Trip to Dunkirk. ' To supply the deficiencies of existing editions of Swift's verse is not impossible. A small expenditure of time and labour has enabled me to date and trace the origin of almost every piece that Swift is known to have written, and to add some new pieces to the collection, and this work will, I hope, prove, of assistance to the future editor of a worthy edition. F. ELRINGTON BALL. A RADICAL WEAVER'S COMMON- PLACE BOOK. THE book from which the extracts given below are taken is a small volume of sixty- eight pages backed with stiff brown paper- covered boards and measuring 7^ in. by 5 1 in. The leaves are stitched and the paper varies in quality, suggesting that the volume had a domestic origin. The book has been used from both ends, forty-five pages in one direction and twenty-three in the other, and here and there a leaf has been torn out. Originally meant as a weaver's Casting and Calculating Book it came to be used by the owner also for other purposes, and some twenty-six pages are used, not for technical or business entries, but as a kind of commonplace book into which are copied paragraphs from newspapers and books, epitaphs, arith- metical problems, &c. There are also some entries which may be original matter. There is no owner's name on the first page at either end or on the covers, and from among the numerous names of persons scattered among the pages of the book it would be difficult to decide which, if any, belonged to the writer of the extracts. That the book belonged to a hand-loom weaver living and working in the vicinity of Manchester is, however, perfectly clear. The period covered lies between the years 1793 and 1816, these being the earliest and latest dates that occur, and judging from the nature of the political entries the owner seems to have been a man of very decided Radical opinions, of a type made familiar later by Samuel Bamford and G. J. Holy- oake. Some ' Questions and Answers rela- tive to the National Debt ' are taken from The Manchester News of Apr. 23, 1796, and there is an extract from The Weekly Register referring to a speech of Pitt's on the Corn Importation Bill in October, 1799. But perhaps the most interesting entry is a set of doggerel verses entitled ' The New Fashion Shaver.' From a literary point of view there is of course little to be said for these verses, but they have a certain interest as representing a section of Radical opinion of the period. The reference to the siege of Toulon as taking place "last year " dates the writing of the lines from 1794. Whether or not they are original I do not know. There is no mention of their being copied from a newspaper, and the spelling is faulty and punctuation entirely absent. In the following transcript I have corrected the one and supplied the other. The writer, whoever he may have been, was a clumsy rimester. In the last verse the reference is clearly to some local incident. THE NEW FASHION SHAVES. 1. As Paddy was walking upon the highway, He met his Mend Dondle and to him did say : Good-morrow, dear Dondle, come tell me I pray, Do you think it is true what the people do say ? After all their humming and drumming, Some say that the French they are coming, Without breeches and broogs they are running, Believe me, dear Dondle, it's true. The French they are fighting for all the world dear, This world of oppression they shortly will clear : If they meet with a traitor they'll stop his career, And cut his head off quite close to his ear ! It's a terrible method of shaving ! A delicate new way of shaving ! I would not lie under the Razor For anything under the sun ! There's one thing I'll ask you and then I'll have done, What would you do if the French they should come ? Would you fight for them, or would you run, When you hear the sound of the trumpet and drum. ? By my faith, I would sp*ak of their favour, For fear of the new fashioned shaver ! I would not lie under their Razor For anything under the sun ! As for Billy Pitt I would have him to take care, For the French they are conquering everywhere- And all the whole chief they do solemnly swear [f they get hold of him they'll clip off his hair. He's a hell of a fellow for vaunting, He's got such a fit of carranting, I wish that the Devil may haunt him, And carry him out of the way.