The Rev. S. Baring-Gould has most obligingly sent me a ballad, taken down by him from the singing of an illiterate hedger in North Devon, in which ‘The Gypsy Laddie,’ recomposed (mostly with middle rhyme in the third verse, as in #A# 1, 8), forms the sequel to a story of an earl marrying a very reluctant gypsy maid. When the vagrant who has been made a lady against nature hears some of her tribe singing at the castle-gate, the passion for a roving life returns, and she deserts her noble partner, who pursues her, and, not being able to induce her to return to him, smites her “lily-white” throat with his sword. This little romance, retouched and repaired, is printed as No 50 of Songs and Ballads of the West, now publishing by Baring-Gould and Sheppard. Mr Baring-Gould has also given me a defective copy of the second part of ‘The Gipsy Countess’ (exhibiting many variations), which he obtained from an old shoemaker of Tiverton. Among the Percy papers there is a set of ballads made over by the Bishop, which may have been intended for the contemplated extension of his Reliques. ‘The Gipsie Laddie,’ in eighteen stanzas, and not quite finished, is one of these. After seven stanzas of #A#, not much altered, the husband ineffectually pursues the lady, who adopts the gipsy trade, with her reid cheek stained wi yallow. Seven years pass, during which the laird has taken another wife. At Yule a wretched carline begs charity at his gate, who, upon questioning, reveals that she had been a lady gay, with a comely marrow, but had proved false and ruined herself. #A.# Gypsies sing so sweetly at our lord’s gate as to entice his lady to come down; as soon as she shows herself, they cast the glamour on her (so #B-F#, #G b#). She gives herself over to the chief gypsy, Johny Faa by name, without reserve of any description. Her lord, upon returning and finding her gone, sets out to recover her, and captures and hangs fifteen gypsies. (It is extremely likely that this version has lost several stanzas.) Our lord, unnamed in #A#, is Lord Cassilis in #B#, #C#, #F# (so Burns, and Johnson’s Museum). Cassilis has become Cassle, Castle in #E#, #G#, Corsefield[39] in #D#, Cashan in Irish #I#, Garrick[40] in American #K#. The Gypsy Laddie is again Johnie, Jockie, Faa in #B#, #D#, #E#; but Gipsy Davy in #C# (where Lady Cassilis is twice called Jeanie Faw), and in American #I a b#; and seems to be called both Johnnie Faw and Gypsie Geordie in #F#. The lady gives the gypsies the good wheat bread #B#, #E# (beer and wine, Finlay); they give her (sweetmeats, #C#) ginger, nutmeg, or both, and she gives them the ring (rings) off her finger (fingers), #B#, #C#, #E#, #G#, #I#, (and Finlay).