112. ARTHUR LE BRIDE. Taken down from Sam Fone, Mary Tavy, by Mr. Bussell, in 1892. Sam told us that this was his father's favourite song. He had learned it from his father when he was quite a child, for the elder Fone deserted his family, and was never heard of again. But one day Sam, when aged eighteen, saw a workman standing at a cottage door, talking to someone within, and he had his hand against the door-post, clutching it as he leaned forward. Sam exclaimed: "That's my father's hand!" The man turned about, and without showing his face, walked away. When Sam came from his work in the evening he made enquiries, and ascertained that a stranger had been lodging in the cottage for a few nights, but was gone. He asked the woman of the house about her lodger. "Well," said she, "I don't know his name, nor nothing about him. But he asked me for a tallow candle, and melted it up into his boots." "That was my father. It was a trick of his," said Sam, promptly. And that was the last ever seen of the man. There was one more verse in the original, omitted to reduce the lengthy ballad to singable proportions. 113. THE KEEPER. This song was taken down from Peter Sandry, St. Ervan's. He had a bad cold, and could not reach the upper notes. But we got the same tune from Mr. Jas. Ellis, Chaddlehanger, Lamerton, and also from Miss Templer, from the singing of harvesters in 1834; but in both these latter cases to the words of "Green Broom." A copy of the ballad will be found in a "Garland," B.M., 11,621, c 3; but this has a chorus to it-- "Jack my master, sing you well, Very well, with my derry down, With my Down, down, down." I have been compelled to re-write most of the song, which in the original is very gross. It is certainly an ancient composition. 114. THE QUEEN OF HEARTS. Sung by a workman engaged on the Burrow-Tor reservoir at Sheepstor, the water supply for Plymouth, 1894. A quaint little song. It has been printed on Broadside by Bachelar, B.M., in vol. vi. p. 110, of several volumes of Broadsides I gave to the B.M. This begins-- "O my poor heart, my poor heart is breaking For a false young man, or I am mistaking: He is gone to Ireland, for a long time to tarry, Some Irish girl I am afraid he will marry." This is obviously an addition to fill out space in the Broadside. The ballad has a flavour of the period of Charles II. 115. THE OWL. This song occurs in part in King Henry VIII.'s music-book, "Deuteromelia," published in 1609. It was set by Mr. Freeman as a glee in "The Essex Harmony," vol. i. 1767, p. 8. In Beaumont and Fletcher's play, "The Knight of the Burning Pestle," 1635, Old Merrythought trolls out snatches of songs, and amongst others-- "Nose, nose, jolly red nose, And who gave thee this jolly red nose? Cinnamon, ginger, nutmegs, and cloves, And they gave me this jolly red nose."