The year 1759 was the great year of the war. On August 18 Boscawen defeated De la Clue, taking three ships of the line and destroying two. On November 20 Hawke beat Conflans in Quiberon Bay. Hawke’s victory is the theme of a ballad apparently written by someone on board the flagship (p. 217). _Neptune’s Resignation_, a pretentious mythological poem ‘written by Mr. Wagnall’ is interesting as a curiosity (p. 218). Twenty-three years later it was adapted to fit Rodney’s victory. Two other pieces of verse--one composed by Paul Whitehead and sung by Mr. Beard at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, the other by Robert English, chaplain of the Royal George--are reprinted in Hawke’s _Life_ (pp. 253-56). ‘Though the rude billows raged,’ sang the chaplain, ‘so close we engaged That rarely a shot was misplaced; The troops on the land chilled with horror they stand To see the white flag so disgraced. ‘No longer they’ll boast of descents on our coast, The bright Queen of the main to reduce; The fair English rose more lovely it blows, While droops the faint Flower de Luce. ‘Each generous heart played so gallant a part That glory has crowned our endeavours And what is still more, the lasses on shore Will esteem us deserving their favours.’ Boscawen and Hawke had effectively ended the French threats of invasion, for which purpose a number of flat-bottomed boats had been built (Entick, iii. 403; v. 50). It is to this project that Garrick contemptuously refers in _Hearts of Oak_, a song in his pantomime _Harlequin’s Invasion_, which was produced on December 31, 1759. The text of the song is so altered in the current versions that it seemed desirable to print it in its original form (p. 220). The only French landing effected took place in Ireland. In October 1759 M. Thurot, with six frigates and 1,300 troops, eluding the squadron under Commodore Boys, which was blockading that port, set out on his adventurous cruise. The weather frustrated an intended descent near Londonderry, but on February 21 he landed some troops at Carrickfergus, but put to sea again after occupying the place for six days. Next day, on February 28, Captain John Elliot, with the Aeolus, Pallas, and Brilliant frigates, engaged the three ships that were left of Thurot’s squadron, and captured them all (Clowes iii. 230; Entick iv. 319-333). Thurot fell in the fight, and the ballad called _Thurot’s Dream_ records his fate (p. 220). This is one of the rare cases in which oral tradition has preserved a better version of the original piece than any of the printed broadsides.