=C.= Communicated by Mr Chappell. Now printed in Old English Ditties, Oxenford and Macfarren, ‘The Mermaid,’ I, 206. =D.= ‘The Mermaid.’ =a.= Long, Dictionary of the Isle of Wight Dialect, 1886, p. 42. =b.= Broadside, H. Such, 177 Union St., Boro’. =E. a.= Motherwell’s MS., p. 145. =b.= ‘The Bonnie Mermaid,’ Motherwell’s Minstrelsy, Appendix, p. xxiii, No XXX, one stanza. =F.= ‘Greenland,’ Kinloch MSS, VII, 245. This is the ballad referred to under ‘Sir Patrick Spens,’ II, 19. It is still common as a broadside. =E a= 6 has taken a burlesque turn. It is scarcely worth while to attempt to account for the vagaries of =F=, in which ‘the kemp o the ship’ takes the place of the mermaid, and the kaim and glass are exchanged for the bottle and glass. The first stanza of =F= may not belong here, or possibly (but not probably) a voyage to Greenland may have been lost from the other copies. In =B=, =C=, =D=, the ship sails on Friday, against all good rules. ‘The Sailor’s Caution,’ the third piece in The Sailing Trade, Glasgow, Printed by J. and M. Robertson, Saltmarket, 1801, begins like =A=, has a stanza (the fifth) representing =A= 4, 5, and concludes thus, after a stanza (the sixth) resembling =A= 3: The mermaid on the rock doth sit, With comb and glass in hand: ‘Cheer up, cheer up, bold mariners, You are not far from land. ‘So now cheer up, bold mariners, Or smother in the deep; All this I do for a sailor’s sake, Whilst losing of my sleep. ‘Here is a token, bold mariners, A token of good will, And if ever that you come this way, ’Tis here you’ll find me still.’ British Museum, 11621. b. 13 (15). A The Glasgow Lasses Garland, the second piece, British Museum, 11621. c. 3 (68). “Newcastle, 1765?” 1 As we lay musing in our beds, So well and so warm at ease, I thought upon those lodging-beds Poor seamen have at seas. 2 Last Easter day, in the morning fair, We was not far from land, Where we spied a mermaid on the rock, With comb and glass in hand. 3 The first came up the mate of our ship, With lead and line in hand, To sound and see how deep we was From any rock or sand. 4 The next came up the boatswain of our ship, With courage stout and bold: ‘Stand fast, stand fast, my brave lively lads, Stand fast, my brave hearts of gold!’ 5 Our gallant ship is gone to wreck, Which was so lately trimmd; The raging seas has sprung a leak, And the salt water does run in. 6 Our gold and silver, and all our cloths, And all that ever we had, We forced was to heave them overboard, Thinking our lives to save. 7 In all, the number that was on board Was five hundred and sixty-four, And all that ever came alive on shore There was but poor ninety-five.