"Colonel Digby's Lament," 1671, begins-- "I'll go to my Love, where he lies in the Deep, And in my Embrace, my dearest shall sleep. When we wake, the kind Dolphins together shall throng, And in chariots of shells shall draw us along. Ah! Ah! My Love is dead. There was not a bell, but a Triton's shell, To ring, to ring out his knell." A second version of the melody, but slightly varied from that we give, was sent us by Mr. H. Whitfeld of Plymouth, as sung by his father. Our air is entirely different from that given by Playford, and is probably the older melody, which was not displaced by the composition of Mr. R. Smith. The song is sung to the same melody, but slightly varied, in Ireland. 33. CHILDE THE HUNTER. Words taken in a fragmentary form from Jonas Coaker. He had used up the material of the ballad, incorporating it into a "poem" he had composed on Dartmoor, and vastly preferred his own doggerel to what was traditional. The Æolian melody given is that to which the Misses Phillips, who were born and reared at Shaw, on Dartmoor, informed me that they had heard the ballad sung about 1830. We also obtained this air to "Cold blows the wind." It is unquestionably an early harp tune, not later than the reign of Henry VII. For the story of Childe of Plymstock, see Murray's "Handbook of Devon," ed. 1887, p. 208; more fully and critically in W. Crossing's "Ancient Crosses of Dartmoor," 1887, p. 51. 34. THE COTTAGE THATCHED WITH STRAW. Taken down, words and melody, from John Watts, quarryman, Alder, Thrushleton. This is one of the best known and, next to "Widdecombe Fair," most favourite songs of the Devon peasantry. Mr. Kidson has noted the song from a Worcestershire man. So far we have not been able to trace either words or melody, though neither can be earlier than the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the song has all the character of a published composition, and no spontaneous composition of a peasant. 35. CICELY SWEET. Words and air sent me by J.S. Hurrell, Esq., Kingsbridge, who had learned them in the middle of last century from Mr. A. Holoran, a Devonshire schoolmaster. It has already been published as "Sylvia Sweet" in Dale's "Collection," _circ._ 1790. Two verses are given by Halliwell as traditional in his "Nursery Rhymes," 4th ed., 1846, p. 223. 36. A SWEET, PRETTY MAIDEN. Melody taken down from James Parsons. The words of his ballad were interesting and poetical, but did not fit the tune. It began-- "A maiden sweet went forth in May, Nor sheet nor clout she bare, She went abroad all on the day To breathe the fresh spring air. Before that she came back again The maiden bore a pretty son, And she roll'd it all up in her apron." The theme is the same as "She roun't in her apron" in Johnson's "Musical Museum," v. p. 437; and as it was quite impossible for us to print it, I have set to the air another song.