Beware how you on Holidays

Abroad do Feast your Wives;
For they that feed on Custard go
In danger of their Lives.

64

Two-pence in Custard did him choak, And brought his Courage down; When Death struck him 'twas thought he The Cream of all the Town. 48 [took Why Newbury is, in the Bagford Ballad, termed "bloody town" is not far to seek. During the Civil War, it was twice the scene of desperate battles, with only a twelvemonth between. On both occasions Charles I. commanded in person. In Sept., 20th and 21st, 1643, it was on a Common called the Wash; the later battle, 27th Oct., 1644, was on fields between Newbury, Speen, and Shaw. Both were fiercely contested, and the damage done was more severe on the King's forces than on the Parliamentarians. But long before had Thomas Deloney made young and old merry with his History, in mingled prose and verse, of Jack of Newbury, called the Clothier of England. Printed and sold in London. It long continued to be reissued in chap-books. "Jack" was John Winchcomb. The verses on "Flodden Field" begin,

King Jemmy of Scots had rais'd

An Army against England;

But let him come, we'll thunder him back,

He cannot us withstand. &c.

This is the London Islington, unquestionably. To the same locality belonged our saucy damsel, who outwitted the London Vintner (p. 410). In those days there were many pleasant fields between the northern village and the city. For our own part, in the absence of decisive proof, we discredit any assertions that to the Islington of Norfolk, and not to our London Islington, belonged the charming "Bailiff's Daughter of Islington" whose constancy was rewarded by union with her lover :

There was a youthe, and a well-beloved youthe,

And he was a Squire's Son:

He loved the Bailiffes Daughter deare,

That lived in Islington.

(Roxb. Coll., ii. 557; Pop. Music, 203; Norfolk Anthology, 53; Glyde's Norfolk Garland, 241, etc.)

2 It was licensed, to T. Millington, in 1595, but the earliest copy known is dated 1619: The Pleasant History of John Winchcomb, in his younger yeares called Jack of Newberie, the famous and worthy Clothier of England: by T. D.

[Bagford Collection, III. 91.]

A Ballad on the most Renowned
Shuff of Newberry.

On this Tragical Occasion a Courier was immediately dispatch'd to Her Majesty's Almonder at Christ Church in Oxford, whose Office it was to act as Coroner in that Ancient Burrough; who having made all the Expedition so weighty an Affair required, upon his arrival summon'd a very Wise Jury no doubt, who having examin'd all Witnesses, and maturely weigh'd the most Minute Cir

If any

cumstances, found as a Deridend due to the King, that Part of the Custard which remain'd uneaten. one desires to be farther inform'd in this Matter, let them consult the Records of that Ancient Burrough, or that Living Oracle the Recorder thereof.

N bloody Town of Newberry,

There liv'd and dy'd, a Blockhead,

Of whom, I'm sure, you ne'er had heard
If he had not been choaked.

4

II.

The adjacent Burrough call'd him Shuff;
Of State, not very thriving,

Since the same Thing which made him Dye,
Is that which keeps us Living.

III.

He Custard on a Wager eate,
And so did cram his Wizand,
That tho' he put it in, he could
Not pluck it out with his Hand.

IV.

Innocent Meat did fatal prove,

Eate ready without Knife;

Down on the Ground he groveling fell,
And Custard strove with Life.

V.

But as he saw the Enemy

Was like to stop his Breath,

He manifestly gave up the Ghost,

And dying, eate his Death.

VI.

As Scavola1 more Credit got,
'Cause his bold Hand did miss;

8

121

16

20

So if thou had'st the Wager won,
Thy Credit had been less.

24

Mutius

1 C. Mutius Scævola (Livy, lib. ii.), the Roman who, with the approbation of the Senate, crossed the Tiber to assassinate the invading "Lars Porsena of Clusium," whom Macaulay's Lays have made more widely known. having by mistake killed Porsena's secretary, was seized and interrogated concerning his associates. To prove his indifference to bodily suffering, he thrust his right hand into the flame and burnt it, but was rewarded by having his forfeited life given to him, by his intended victim.

[In White-letter. Printer's name cut off, or absent. Date of event and publication, certainly not later than 1684. Two woodcuts, already reproduced. The contemporary representation of a Coroner's Inquest is curious and interesting. The free-handling in design and engraving, of both pictures, have been exactly preserved, and show superior workmanship: probably from a chap-book.]

1 We suppose Serini to have been a contemporary Jack-Pudding, and fireeater, who swallowed more Custards than, alas! poor Shuff.