The short scholar was right as to the effect of the Doctor’s song. It was hailed with rapturous applause by the lower tables, though you would have said, to look at them, that scarcely a man of the audience, except those close round the singer, could have appreciated it. People don’t always like best what they fully understand; and I don’t know which is the greatest mistake, to fancy yourself above your audience, or to try to come down to them. The little stiffness which the presence of strangers belonging to the broad-cloth classes had at first created amongst the pastime folk was wearing off, and several songs were started at once from the distant parts of the booth, all of which, save one, came to untimely ends in the course of the first verse or so, leaving the field clear to a ruddy-faced, smock-frocked man, who, with his eyes cast up to the tent-top, droned through his nose the following mournful ditty:-- THE BARKSHIRE TRAGEDY. A varmer he lived in the West Countree, Hey-down, bow-down, A varmer he lived in the West Countree, And he had daughters one, two, and dree. And I’ll be true to my love, If my love’ll be true to me. As thay wur walking by the river’s brim, Hey-down, bow-down, As thay wur walking by the river’s brim, The eldest pushed the youngest in. And I’ll be true, &c. “Oh sister, oh sister, pray gee me thy hand, Hey-down, &c. And I’ll gee thee both house and land.” And I’ll, &c. “I’ll neither gee thee hand nor glove, Hey-down, &c. Unless thou’lt gee me thine own true love.” And I’ll, &c. So down she sank and away she swam, Hey-down, &c. Until she came to the miller’s dam. And I’ll, &c. The miller’s daughter stood by the door, Hey-down, &c. As fair as any gilly-flow-èr. And I’ll, &c. “Oh vather, oh vather, here swims a swan, Hey-down, &c. Very much like a drownded gentlewomàn.” And I’ll, &c. The miller he fot his pole and hook, Hey-down, &c. And he fished the fair maid out of the brook. And I’ll, &c. “Oh miller, I’ll gee thee guineas ten, Hey-down, &c. If thou’lt fetch me back to my vather again.” And I’ll, &c. The miller he took her guineas ten, Hey-down, &c. And he pushed the fair maid in again. And I’ll, &c. But the Crowner he cum, and the Justice too, Hey-down, &c. With a hue and a cry and a hulla-balloo. And I’ll, &c.