The subject of the following song is a comparison between the manners of the old gentry, as still subsisting in the times of Elizabeth, and the modern refinements affected by their sons in the reigns of her successors. It is given in Volume II. of Percy’s _Reliques of Ancient Poetry_, where it is stated that it was first printed in the reign of James the First. Bishop Percy says he found it among some poems and songs in a book entitled “Le Prince d’ Amour,” dated 1660. It will at once be seen that it is the original of the more familiar song, _The Fine Old English Gentleman_, which immediately follows it, and which, has itself, been the subject of numerous imitations and parodies. An old song made by an aged old pate, Of an old worshipful gentleman, who had a greate estate, That kept a brave old house at a bountiful rate, And an old porter to relieve the poor at his gate; Like an old courtier of the Queen’s, And the Queen’s old courtier. With an old lady, whose anger one word asswages; They every quarter paid their old servants their wages, And never knew what belong’d to coachmen, footmen, nor pages, But kept twenty old fellows with blue coats and badges; Like an old courtier, &c. With an old study filled full of learned old books, With an old reverend chaplain, you might know him by his looks, With an old buttery hatch worn quite off the hooks, And an old kitchen, that maintain’d half a dozen old cooks; Like an old courtier, &c. With an old hall hung about with pikes, guns, and bows, With old swords, and bucklers, that had borne many shrewde blows, And an old frize coat, to cover his worship’s trunk hose. And a cup of old sherry, to comfort his copper nose; Like an old courtier, &c. With a good old fashion, when Christmasse was come, To call in all his old neighbours with bagpipe and drum, With good cheer enough to furnish every old room, And old liquor able to make a cat speak, and man dumb; Like an old courtier, &c. With an old falconer, huntsman, and a kennel of hounds, That never hawked, nor hunted, but in his own grounds, Who, like a wise man, kept himself within his own bounds, And when he dyed gave every child a thousand good pounds; Like an old courtier, &c. But to his eldest son, his house and land he assign’d, Charging him in his will to keep the old bountifull mind, To be good to his old tenants, and to his neighbours be kind But in the ensuing ditty you shall hear how he was inclin’d; Like a young courtier of the King’s, And the King’s young courtier.