THE STATESMAN, &c. NOME Years ago from Norfolck, And tho' it is most strange, yet 4 So to London he wou'd go, wou'd go, &c. He understood Accounts too, So to London he wou'd go, &c. For why, whilst at his Father's he So to London he wou'd go, &c. But first he thought it fitting To Lynn then straight he trudges, To London I wou'd go, &c. I have a Mind, good Sir, If that you'll please to think me For to London I wou'd go, &c. I hear the People there When to London 1 do go, &c. To London I wou'd go, Sir, For to London fain I go, &c. 'He first sat for Lynn in 1702. But to Strombolo might go, &c.3 Then hey for Westminster, quoth Bob, 2 Original misprinted; "not the worth." 68 3 A variation that is suggestive, as well as unique. A modern song tells of a gay cavalier," who, finding a pair of gloves in his mistress's chamber instead of the lady herself, and a ladder of ropes indicating her mode of flight, sums up his anxieties as to her future by his declaration," When a lady elopes down a ladder of ropes, She may go to Hong Kong for me!" The sending a person to Coventry is a quite distinct operation from sending him to JERICHO-a place always in ill-repute and the latter saying may have come from the Biblical expression So to the Tower he did go, &c. 76 To make him some Amends then, 80 100 A Paymaster of the Guards he's made, So to Speeching he does go, &c. To still the Noodle next, 104 He's made M-n-st-r of St-t-, 84 For which he'll meet his Fate; 88 When to the Tower he does go, &c. But yet not being satisfy'd, 'Cause that's a pretty thing; When to Norfolck he does go, [&c.] 112 However, let him have his W[h]im, 116 92 And dangle the Blue string, So he's but doom'd at last In a Hempen one to Swing, FINIS. When to TYBURN he does go, &c. 120 [In White-letter. A four-paged sheet. Date about 1726-7.] as to persons who had been treated ignominiously, and therefore exposed to derision if they came abroad-"Let them tarry at Jericho till their beards be grown." The consigning any penniless adventurer to so warm a place as the volcanic Stromboli was piquant, and more courteous than relegating him, as many would have done, to a still warmer locality. The Commons sought to ruin him, for an irregularity while he was Secretary at War, connected with the forage contract in Scotland. "The contractors, rather than admit into their partnership a person whom he had recommended for that purpose, chose to present his friend with five hundred pounds. Their bill was addressed to Mr. Walpole, who indorsed it, and his friend touched the money. This transaction was interpreted into a bribe. Mr. Walpole was voted guilty of corruption, imprisoned in the Tower, and expelled the House." This was on the 17th of January, 1711-2. Being afterwards re-chosen by the same borough of Lynn-Regis, which he had before represented, a petition was lodged against him, and the Commons voted him incapable of being elected a member to serve in the present Parliament."-Smollett: Hist. of England, x. 86, 1759. While imprisoned in the Tower, refusing to make any concession, he was visited by crowds of friends, and wrote his vindication. He was released in July, 1712. Exactly twelve months later he was again returned by the burgesses of Lynn, and on the 6th Feb., 1713-4, took his seat. Swift in his Journal to Stella, 17th January, 1712, declares his hope about the Tower and expulsion. It is not improbable that SWIFT wrote this ballad. He is by Trade a C And a fit Subject for a Satyr. THIS Man was of a Mind aspiring, THIS And to be Somebody desiring; But he found none that did him care for; 28 32 My humble Thanks I'm now returning, For th' Honours done to me this Morning; 36 'For as you are a Crew Selected, For you my Masters, with my Noddle, For as we are a blessed Brood, 'Our Meeting's for the Parish Good, 'And as I'm for our Publick Weal, 2 Which having said, the Subtle S- -r, [In White-letter: exceptions imitated. No printer's name, or date; probably, 1730.] 1 The wooden house was a coffin; the Speaker, an Undertaker. 2 In original, line 74, the blank follows without any final quotational mark, or any indication of the suggested word. As Horatio said, "You might have rhymed!" but Hamlet, and the writer of this squib knew that nothing was lost if they left the rhyme to be supplied by the lookers-on. The End of Volume H. of the original Bagford Collection of Ballads. |