[84] Absurdly reported to have taken place at a meeting in the
Nag's-head Tavern, Cheapside.
[85] M. Michel published in Paris, in 1834, a collection of poems
and ballads concerning Hugh of Lincoln, which were all very popular
at home and abroad in the Middle Ages. One of these, preserved in an
Anglo-Norman MS. in the Bibliotheque Royale at Paris, was evidently
constructed to be sung by the people soon after the event, which is
stated to have happened in the reign of our Henry III.; but there
are many ballads comparatively modern which show how carefully the
story was kept before the populace; and may be seen in the
collections of Bishop Percy, Jameson, Motherwell, &c.
[86] Book iii. ch. 29, sec. 18.
[87] A story still more absurd was connected with the name of
Colonel Lunsford, a soldier who consistently defended Charles I.,
and was killed in 1643. It is related by Echard as reported of him,
that he would kill and eat the children of the opposite party. This
horridly grotesque imputation has been preserved in the political
ballads and poetry of the day. Cleveland ridicules it in one of his
poems, where he makes a Roundhead declare--
"He swore he saw, when Lunsford fell,
A child's arm in his pocket."
[88] Taylor, Annot. ad Lysiam.