Nevertheless, I do not believe that this poem was written in any part of the seventeenth century. It appears to me to be the work of a true poet in the most vicious age of English poetry, and infected with all its faults. Weakened with epithets, and its language poor and artificial, it rises to nature at the close, than which nothing of the kind can be much better. In the following stanza I do not altogether like the personification of Time:-- "And when with envy, Time transported, Shall think to rob us of our joys, You'll in your girls again be courted, And I'll go wooing in my boys." A likely thought, truly, for a boy of sixteen! My own impression is, that it did not long precede the age of "the little folks on Strawberry Hill." Since writing the above I have referred to my copy of Steven's songs, which I had not at hand before. It is the Oxford edition mentioned by LORD BRAYBROOKE; and although it does not contain "Winifreda," a clue, it appears to me, may be drawn from it as to Stevens's connexion with this piece. In the first place, it is to be remarked that the title of the book is, _Songs, Comic and Satyrical_, by George Alexander Stevens. The motto is from the author's _Lecture on Heads_, "_I love fun!--keep it up!_" These circumstances are important, as one would hardly expect to find "Winifreda" in such a volume, though it were by the same author. Yet, there is a song which, though written in a more lilting measure, is quite as much out of place; and this song shows evidence, in my opinion, of Stevens having known and admired "Winifreda." It is entitled "Rural Felicity," and is to be found at page 71 of the volume. Compare the two following stanzas with the last two of "Winifreda:"-- III. "He smiles on his babes, as some strive for his knee, And some to their mother's neck cling, While playful the prattlers for place disagree, The roof with their shrill trebles ring. VI. "I remember the day of my falling in love, How fearful I first came to woo; I hope that these boys will as true-hearted prove, And our lasses, my dear, look like you." "Rural Felicity," however, though in a purer style than "Winifreda," can hardly be said to rise to poetry at all; and if the latter had been by the same author, it is most improbable that he would have excluded it from the volume containing the former. Looking at the two songs together, one is an evident imitation; and the conclusion I should come to with regard to the other is, that it was written by a man who _knew_ the feeling he describes; by one of whom it could not be said, "He has no children;" by one to whom that more than identity of interest that centres in the-- "Unselfish self, the filial self of twain," was a familiar feeling. Stevens, perhaps, had repeated the poem, or made a copy of it, and thus gained the credit of being its author.