_Miry-Land Town_. In the _Athenaeum_, in an article on the tradition
respecting Sir Hugh of Lincoln, the Bishop of Dromore's version of the
affair is thus given:--
"The rain rins doun through Mirry-land toune,
Sae dois it doune the Pa';
Sae dois the lads of Mirry-land toune.
Quhan they play at the Ba'."
In explanation of part of this stanza, Dr. Percy is stated to have
considered "Mirry-land toune" to be "_probably_ a corruption of Milan
(called by the Dutch Meylandt) town," and that the Pa' was "_evidently_
the River Po, though the Adige, not the Po, runs through Milan;" and it
is observed that it could not have occasioned Dr. Jamieson _much
trouble_ to conjecture as he did that "Mirry-land toune" was a
corruption of "Merry Lincolne," and that, in fact, in 1783, Pinkerton
commenced his version of the ballad thus--
"The bonnie boys o' merry Lincoln;"
and it is added, very truly, that with all his haste and petulance,
Pinkerton's critical acumen was far from inconsiderable. Now, there
appears to me to have been a very simple solution of the above words, so
simple that perhaps it was beneath the critical acumen of the said
commentators. My note on the subject is, that Mirry-land toune means
nothing more than Miry-, Muddy-land Town, a designation that its
situation certainly entitles it to; and Pa' is certainly not the Po, but
an abbreviated form of Pall, i.e. a place to play Ba' or ball in, of
which we have a well-known instance in Pall Mall.
Since writing the above, I recollect that Romsey, in Hampshire, has been
designated "Romsey-in-the-Mud."