"Sir Frog he would a-wooing go, Whether his mother was willing or no." That some courtship in the history of the British monarchy, leaving a deep impression on the public mind, gave rise to this generally diffused ballad, is exceedingly probable; but the style and wording of the song are evidently of a period much later than the age of Henry VIII. Might not the madcap adventure of Prince Charles with Buckingham into Spain, to _woo the Infanta_, be its real origin? "Heigho! for Antony Rowley" is the chorus. Now "Old Rowley" was a pet name for Charles the Second, as any reader of the Waverley Novels must recollect. No event was more likely to be talked about and sung about at the time, the adventurous nature of the trip being peculiarly adapted to the ballad-monger. FRANCIS MAHONY. _"A Frog he would a-wooing go"_ (Vol. ii., p. 45.)--Your correspondent T. S. D. is certainly right in his notion that the ballad of "A frog he would a-wooing go" is very old, however fanciful may be his conjecture about its personal or political application to Henry VIII. and Anne Boleyn. That it could not refer to "the Cavaliers and the Roundheads," another of T. S. D.'s notions, is clear from the fact, that it was entered at Stationers' Hall in November, 1581; as appears by the quotation made by Mr. Payne Collier, in his second volume of _Extracts_, printed for the Shakspeare Society last year. It runs thus:-- "Edward White. Lycensed unto him, &c., theis iiij. ballads followinge, that is to saie, A moste strange weddinge of the frogge and the mowse," &c. Upon this entry Mr. Collier makes this note: "The ballad can hardly be any other than the still well-known comic song 'A Frog he would a-wooing go.'" It may have been even older than 1581, when Edward White entered it; for it is possible that it was then only a reprint of an earlier production. I, like Mr. Collier, have heard it sung "in our theatres and streets," and, like T. S. D., always fancied that it was ancient. THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT. _Rowley Powley._--As generally inclined to the belief that everything is older than anybody knows of, I am rather startled by "Rowley Powley" not being as old as myself. I remember seeing mentioned somewhere, without any reference to this chorus, that _rowley powley_ is a name for a plump fowl, of which both "gammon and spinach" are posthumous connexions. I cannot help thinking that this may be a clue to some prior occurrence of the chorus, with or without {75} the song. If "derry down," which has been said to be druidical, were judged of by the last song it went with, how old would be the Druids? M.