[WHEN we first met with this very pleasing English ballad, we deemed the story to be wholly fictitious, but ‘strange’ as the ‘relation’ may appear, the incidents narrated are ‘true’ or at least founded on fact. The scene of the ballad is Whitley Park, near Reading, in Berkshire, and not, as some suppose, Calcot House, which was not built till 1759. Whitley is mentioned as ‘the Abbot’s Park, being at the entrance of Redding town.’ At the Dissolution the estate passed to the crown, and the mansion seems, from time to time, to have been used as a royal ‘palace’ till the reign of Elizabeth, by whom it was granted, along with the estate, to Sir Francis Knollys; it was afterwards, by purchase, the property of the Kendricks, an ancient race, descended from the Saxon kings. William Kendrick, of Whitley, armr. was created a baronet in 1679, and died in 1685, leaving issue one son, Sir William Kendrick, of Whitley, Bart., who married Miss Mary House, of Reading, and died in 1699, without issue male, leaving an only daughter. It was this rich heiress, who possessed ‘store of wealth and beauty bright,’ that is the heroine of the ballad. She married Benjamin Child, Esq., a young and handsome, but very poor attorney of Reading, and the marriage is traditionally reported to have been brought about exactly as related in the ballad. We have not been able to ascertain the exact date of the marriage, which was celebrated in St. Mary’s Church, Reading, the bride wearing a thick veil; but the ceremony must have taken place some time about 1705. In 1714, Mr. Child was high sheriff of Berkshire. As he was an humble and obscure personage previously to his espousing the heiress of Whitley, and, in fact, owed all his wealth and influence to his marriage, it cannot be supposed that _immediately_ after his union he would be elevated to so important and dignified a post as the high-shrievalty of the very aristocratical county of Berks. We may, therefore, consider nine or ten years to have elapsed betwixt his marriage and his holding the office of high sheriff, which he filled when he was about thirty-two years of age. The author of the ballad is unknown: supposing him to have composed it shortly after the events which he records, we cannot be far wrong in fixing its date about 1706. The earliest broadside we have seen contains a rudely executed, but by no means bad likeness of Queen Anne, the reigning monarch at that period.] PART I. SHOWING CUPID’S CONQUEST OVER A COY LADY OF FIVE THOUSAND A YEAR. BACHELORS of every station, Mark this strange and true relation, Which in brief to you I bring,— Never was a stranger thing! You shall find it worth the hearing; Loyal love is most endearing, When it takes the deepest root, Yielding charms and gold to boot. Some will wed for love of treasure; But the sweetest joy and pleasure Is in faithful love, you’ll find, Gracèd with a noble mind.