The fact is that my mother, to whom Lockhart has alluded as a frequent correspondent of Scott and Southey, and who inherited a family stock of strange tales and legends, suggested the subject of 'Hamilton Tighe' to Barham. The original ghost story, in the circumstances of which he made some slight alteration, was said to have occurred in the family of Mr. Pye, the poet laureate, a neighbour and brother magistrate of my maternal grandfather, Mr. W., and the date of it was supposed to be connected with the taking of Vigo. This legend, which appeared in _Bentley's Miscellany_, was the first in the series, and is, as an illustration of his peculiar style, worth better criticism than my own. Suffice it to state that which my friend Miss Mitford can confirm, that the simple recitation of 'Hamilton Tighe' has actually made persons start and turn pale, and complain of nervous excitement. 'Patty Morgan the Milkmaid's Story' and the 'Dead Drummer' were transmitted also to him through the same medium,--the former having been recounted to us by Lady Eleanor Butler, as a whimsical Welsh legend which had diverted her much; the latter by Sir Walter Scott, who, having better means than most men of ascertaining facts and names, believed in their authenticity. I think, but am not certain, that the 'Hand of Glory' was suggested by a conversation at our house on the subject of country superstition. Of the source of the remaining legends I am ignorant, save that the basis of some of them was furnished by an old Popish book in the library of Sion College, from which, as from other sources, Barham was wont to gratify his love of heraldry and antiquarianism .... The _Ingoldsby Legends_ were the occasional relief of a suppressed plethora of native fun. "Many of these effusions were written while waiting for a cup of tea, a railroad train, or an unpunctual acquaintance, on some stray cover of a letter in his pocket-book; one in particular served to relieve the tedium of a hot walk up Richmond Hill. It was rather a piece of luck if he found time to joint together the _disjecti membra poetæ_ in a fair copy; and before the favoured few had done laughing at some rhymes which had never entered a man's head before, the zealous Bentley had popped the whole into type. After all, the imputed instances of inadvertence (for no one who knew him would style it irreverence) chiefly occur in that part of the series in which his purpose, to my knowledge, was to quiz that spirit of flirtation with the Scarlet Lady of Babylon, which had of late assumed a pretty marked shape; and it was difficult to prosecute this end without confounding the Scriptural St. Peter with the Dagon of the Vatican."