"_The Three Pigeons_" (Vol. ix., p. 423.).--I think Washington Irving, in
his _Life of Goldsmith_, satisfactorily explains the origin of the song in
_She Stoops to Conquer_, which your correspondent G. TAYLOR supposes was
suggested by the inn at Brentford, mentioned by DR. RIMBAULT. The American
biographer says that Goldsmith and his companion Bryanton
"Got up a country club at the inn at Ballymahon, of which Goldsmith
soon became the oracle and prime wit; astonishing his unlettered
associates by his learning, and being considered capital at a song and
story. From the rustic conviviality of the inn at Ballymahon, and the
company which used to assemble there, it is surmised that he took some
hints in afterlife for his picturing of Tony Lumpkin and his
associates, 'Dick Muggins the exciseman, Jack Slang the horse doctor,
Little Aminadab that grinds the music-box, and Tom Twist that spins the
pewter-platter.' Nay, it is thought that Tony's drinking-song at the
'Three Jolly Pigeons' was but a revival of one of the convivial catches
at Ballymahon."