4, 1799) of a Miss Talbot, who followed her lover as a seaman, and,
afterwards quarrelling with him, she enlisted in the army; but her love
of the sea was unconquerable, and she joined the Navy, being present on
board Earl St. Vincent’s ship on February 14, and again was under fire
at Camperdown.
[48] I have heard this verse sung thus:
Now the losing of the Prentice boys
It grieved the Captain sore,
But the losing of the great big whale,
It grieved him very much more.
[49] Her Majesty’s accession to the throne took place on June 20, 1837.
[50] The Queen was married on February 10, 1840.
[51] Jupiter appeared to Danaë as a shower of gold.
[52] This event took place November 9, 1841.
[53] 1849.
[54] Scotland, September, 1844; Ireland, August, 1849.
[55] August 18, 1855.
[56] Prince Albert was at one time very unpopular in England. His
advising the Queen, and consequent intimate and personal knowledge of
all that was going on during the Russian war, coupled with the fact
that he was a foreigner, led the unthinking to believe that he was
secretly helping Russia--a report of which he seems to have been well
aware (_vide_ Sir T. Martin’s “Life of the Prince Consort,” vol. iii.
p. 219, March, 1855). I recollect very well the rumour that he had been
imprisoned in the Tower, and a comic paper had an engraving of two
cabmen meeting, and one saying to the other, “Have yer ’eard the noose?
Vhy, Prince Halbert along with two other Commander-in-Chiefs have been
sent to the Tower; which Lewis Napoleon diwulged ’em a sending of five
pound notes to the Emperor of Rooshia, and so he blowed the gaff” (told
of them).
[57] 1815.
[58] He died from the effects of a fall from his horse.
[59] Died September 14, 1852; lay in state at Chelsea Hospital from
November 10 to 17; buried at St. Paul’s, November 18.
[60] When this ballad was written, the Lords might vote by proxy, and
a minister, or his opponent, might, and did, produce enough (either to
gain or lose a measure) of votes from Peers who were too lazy to attend.
[61] The counties of York and Lancaster were very early in the field in
espousing the cause of the Anti-Corn-Law League.
[62] The “National Anti-Corn-Law League Free Trade Bazaar,” held at
Covent Garden Theatre, May 8, 9, 10, 12, 1845.
[63] Repeat as chorus last two lines of each verse.
[64] A song relating to the celebration (in London) of the Peace of
1815.
[65] This song was sung by W. H. Williams, in his entertainment of
“Wine and Walnuts,” and by C. Taylor at Vauxhall.
[66] Gold was discovered in Australia in 1851.
[67] A hog is cant for a shilling.
[68] A quartern “tin” loaf.
[69] Executed June 14, 1856.
[70] A high-class gambling house in St. James’s Street.
[71] A dandy of the first water in the time of the Regency. His vanity
was superlative. He essayed to play Romeo, creating nothing but roars
of laughter in the house. In the scene where Romeo dies, the audience
applauded him ironically; but he took it in earnest, and, getting up,
bowed, and _died again_, first of all carefully dusting the stage.
[72] Cant term for leaving lodgings without paying.
[73] Red herrings.
[74] Gin.