Percy almost wished to forget that he had edited the Reliques' and had qualms of conscience as to whether his energies had been well directed 'in bestowing any attention on a parcel of old ballads.' He hoped that the names of so many men of learning and character, being associated with his own, would guard him from unfavourable censure. He viewed with more complacency his translation of the 'Song of Solomon,' that ballad of ballads' as it has been called, and also his 'Key to the New Testament.' In like manner Sir Walter Scott's old tutor lamented that so promising a pupil should have wasted so much time in researches about fairies, witches and ghosts, and though assured that his works were of a higher and purer kind than most romances, he never could be persuaded to read them. From the days of Sidney to those of Wordsworth, poetry was always looked upon as a dangerous form of temptation.' Even Pope and Scott apologised for spending their time so idly in making verses. But surely Bede portrayed the true spirit of poetry and music when he wrote: 'It is of all arts the most laudable, pleasant, joyous and amiable; and by its power renders man brave, liberal, courteous and agreeable.' There was nothing for a bishop to repent of in the furtherance of this divine art, but, like Hannah More, Percy considered the suppression of God's best gifts as an act of merit.

Percy's friends regretted that his episcopal character prevented his adding fresh volumes to the 'Reliques,' and represented to him that the inditing of dulcet ditties was in nought misbeseeming to a mitred clerk.' 'Works of innocent entertainment, unmixed with poison,' they urged, are of greater benefit than those dealing with theology, that are seldom read, except by

people who little need them.' Numerous prelates who had courted the Muses were quoted in defence of this argument. Heliodorus wrote a romance, Vida, Bembo, Sadolet and Barberini were poets. Among our own bishops were Still (author of our first comedy, 'Gammer Gurton's Needle '), also Bale, Hall, Corbet, Sprat, Atterbury, Louth, Barnard, etc.

Aldhelm, Bishop of Sherborne, nephew of Ina, King of Wessex, composed ballads and sang them in all the fairs of his diocese, accompanying himself on the harp with music of his own composition. Yet this' Right Reverend ballad-singer' was the most respectable personage of his day. Dunstan, 'a Saint by title, and by trade an Archbishop,' was celebrated for his eminence as a harper.

Percy declared that his 'Reliques' only served as a relaxation from graver studies, and pleaded that he had taken up these trifles, as other grave men do cards, to unbend and amuse the mind. He hoped he need not be ashamed of having bestowed some of his idle hours on the ancient literature of his country, and wished only to be regarded as a well-intentioned clergyman who desired to impress seriously on his brethren the important duties of their function. Therefore he begged his booksellers, whenever they entertained their readers with extracts from a book which was the innocent amusement of his leisure hours twenty or thirty years ago, not in future to exhibit such extracts as the production of the present Bishop of Dromore in capitals, as if it was his recent publication. He equally desired that nothing might now be said about it. 'Any apology would make the matter worse.'

It was furthermore represented to Bishop Percy that, as it was out of his power to unpublish the 'Reliques,"

an augmented edition could not desecrate him one hair's breadth more,' and that the original title-page of the work might be preserved and the mitre kept out of sight. To this the Bishop answered, from Dromore, in 1784:

'I received with pleasure and surprise your flattering remarks on an old publication of mine, which, after 20 years, I might reasonably have expected had been forgotten. You would deserve my best thanks, if you were not tempting me to review with too much complacency the sins and follies of my youth, by finding me a salve in the precedent of my good brother of Sherborne.'

Wordsworth, who, through the influence of the ballads, was the first of our modern poets to return to nature and truth, declared that the poetry of England had been absolutely redeemed by Percy's 'Reliques,' while that of Germany, as shown in the works of Goethe, Schiller, and Heine, was greatly influenced by that work,

Of the rise and fall of the ballads, Sir George Douglas tells us that a century ago they were the height of the fashion, and contributed more than aught else to the Romantic revival in our literature. In "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" Scott owed his success to the action and adventure. . . of a story told with the clearness and rapidity characteristic of the ballad poetry

In "The Revenge "Tennyson proved that he had it within him to write a stirring ballad . . . but in his other poems he led the public into paths of introspection, philosophy and poetic art . . . as far removed from ballad primitiveness as anything well could be.' As one who has passed his life in the land of the ballads, and has contributed to their preservation, Sir George

мер

assures us that they are at the present time neglected, and, as far as the life of the people is concerned, are fast becoming a dead letter . . . but their strength and beauty must remain immortal, for they speak the pure language of the human heart, and are firmly rooted in human nature itself.'

In 1840 the Percy Society' was founded in commemoration of Bishop Percy, for the publication of ballad poetry. Lord Braybrooke was its first president. It was dissolved in 1852.

CHAPTER V

1766-1768

It was to the publication of the 'Reliques' that Thomas Percy owed his introduction to Sir Hugh Smithson, then Earl of Northumberland, created in 1766 the first Duke of Northumberland who was connected with the house of Percy. The title had previously been held by a Dudley in 1551. Sir Hugh married in 1740 Lady Elizabeth Seymour, who through the female line represented the Percy family and inherited their northern estates. Her grandmother, Lady Elizabeth Percy, was the only child of Josceline, Earl of Northumberland, and being so great an heiress she was married three times whilst yet a minor.' When scarcely twelve years of age she was bestowed with her fortunes on Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle, son and heir of the Duke of Newcastle, the saddest creature that could have been found, of idiotic mind and inhuman ugliness.' never saw him after the ceremony and he died abroad six months later. She was next married, or rather sold, to Thomas Thynne of Longleat, a wealthy commoner, popularly known as 'Tom of Ten Thousand,' whom, until her wedding day, she had never seen. From revelations concerning him that were made to her on the morning of her marriage, she resolved to leave him at the church door and fly to Holland, whence nothing would induce her to return until she heard that he was dead. Thomas Thynne was shot in Pall Mall in 1682 by Count Charles

She