_Winifreda_ (Vol. iii., p. 27.).--LORD BRAYBROOKE has furnished your
readers with a very curious list of the various printed forms in which,
at different times, this popular song has been given to the world; but
he has omitted one which I think ought to be placed on record. I allude
to a copy contained in the third number of _The Foundling Hospital for
Wit_, a rare miscellany of "curious pieces," printed for W. Webb, near
St. Paul's, 8vo. 1746 (p. 23.). This work was printed in numbers, at
intervals, the first bearing date 1743; and the sixth, and last, 1749.
My copy is particularly interesting as having the blank names filled up
in a cotemporary hand, and the authors' names, in many cases, added. The
song of _Winifreda_ is assigned to "Mr. G. A. Stevens;" so that, after
all, the Edinburgh reviewer may have confounded _George_ Steevens, the
"commentator," with his earlier and equally facetious namesake, _George
Alexander_.
George Alexander Stevens was born (if a MS. obituary in my possession
may be relied on) "in the parish of St. Andrew's Holborn, 1710." He died
(according to the _Biographia Dramatica_) "at Baldock in Hertfordshire,
Sept. 6, 1784."