"Si Mr. Slaney reprend son dessein de venir passer quelques mois dans cette ville, je serai bien charmé de lui être de quelque utilité, et je ne manquerai pas de profiter de cette occasion de vous renouveller les assurances des sentimens distingués avec lesquels j'ai l'honneur d'être, "Monsieur, "Vôtre très humble et très obeissant serviteur, "MONSIEUR, Geneve, ce 2 Juillet, 1777. "Mr. Boissier, qui vous remettra cette lettre, est un de mes bons amis qui, cultivant la littérature pour son amusement, et retournant dans vôtre pays, a dû naturellement desirer d'y faire la connoissance d'une personne de vôtre réputation. Il m'a prié de lui en faciliter le moyen, et j'ai espéré que vous ne trouveriez pas mauvais que je vous demandasse la permission de vous rendre ses devoirs et de passer quelques momens avec vous, lorsqu'il se trouveroit a portée de jouir de vôtre conversation. Je serai bien charmé d'apprendre de vos nouvelles par son moyen, et d'avoir de mon côté des occasions de vous donner des preuves de tous les sentimens distingués avec lesquels j'ai l'honneur d'être, Monsieur, "Vôtre très humble et très obeissant serviteur, "Geneve, ce 8 Novembre, 1777. "Je vous aurois temoigné plutôt toute la réconnoissance que je vous dois, Monsieur, pour le beau present que vous m'avez envoyé par Messrs. Beckford * et Lettice,† si ces messieurs ne l'eussent laissé dans une malle avec d'autres livres qui ne sont arrivés qu'assez longtems après eux. J'en jouis actuellement et j'ai déja parcouru avec beaucoup de plaisir et d'instruction l'Archæologia, qui me parôit un véritable tresor dans ce genre d'érudition. J'espère qu'il me sera fort utile pour les recherches que je m'amuse à faire, quand d'autre occupations me le permettent, sur les divers vestiges encore subsistants ça et là de l'ancienne langue Celtique. Et par cette raison j'aurois fort souhaité que l'auteur eut publié le second volume de son * The celebrated William Beckford, Esq. of Fonthill. He died May 2, 1844. See a memoir in Gent. Mag. New Series, vol. XXII. p. 209. + Rev. John Lettice, D.D. who is already noticed in Literary Illustrations, General Index. ouvrage, qui, comme il l'annonce dans sa preface, devoit contenir l'explication de plusieurs noms de lieux de la Grande Bretagne et celle de divers monumens de ses premiérs habitans. Mais je comprens que ce second volume n'existe pas ou ne se trouve plus, et qu'il faut suppléer par quelque autre ouvrage à cette partie de son travail, qui n'étoit pas sans doute la moins intéressante. "Je ne vous suis pas moins obligé de m'avoir fait connôitre Messrs. Beckford et Lettice. Ils sont tous les deux dans des genres différens des personnes de beaucoup de mérite. L'esprit, la vivacité d'imagination, et les talens, de Mr. Beckford le font aimer et recevoir ici avec plaisir par tous ceux qui le connoissent. Mr. Lettice vit plus retiré, mais c'est parce qu'il le veut bien, et nous sommes ici plusieurs personnes qui serions charmées de jouir plus souvent de sa conversation et de lui procurer quelques agrémens. "J'avois esperé de pouvoir vous faire parvenir il y a déja quelque tems le nouveau volume, qui vient d'être imprimé à Copenhague, de l'Histoire de Dannemarc. L'impression en est en effêt achevée, mais il n'est point encore arrivé ici. Je sais seulement qu'il est en chemin, et que je ne puis tarder beaucoup à le récevoir. J'aurai l'honneur de vous en faire parvenir aussitôt qu'il se pourra un exemplaire. Je vous dois cette foible marque de réconnoissance à tant de titres, que je serois impatient par cette seule raison de le recevoir et de le recommander à vôtre indulgence et à vôtre amitié. Continuez moi l'une et l'autre je vous en prie, et ne doutez pas des sentimens de dévouement et du respect bien sincères avec lesquels je suis, Monsieur, "Vôtre très humble et très obeissant serviteur, Dr. PERCY to JOHN WILSON,* Esq. << SIR, Alnwick Castle, Sept. 4, 1777. "I hope you will excuse the liberty I take in troubling you with a few lines, although I have not the honour to be known to you. Mr. Bosvile, of Gunthwaite, was here a few days ago, and very obligingly communicated to me some particulars which, I think, very much illustrate the excellent old ballad of the Dragon of Wantley,' (of *For copies of these three Letters to Mr. Wilson I am indebted to the kindness of the Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A. which I published a copy, some years since, in a book printed for Dodsley, entitled, 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry,' 3 vols). Mr. Bosvile's opinion, viz. that the Dragon, &c. was intended to stigmatize the person who rented the impropriation of Penistone, for his attempt to compel the parishioners to pay tithes in kind, I think extremely probable and satisfactory, as it seems to afford a very good key to the satire, which, till now, has always appeared to me inexplicable. There were, however, one or two circumstances, on which, when I wished for a little further information, Mr. Bosvile referred me, Sir, to you, and encouraged me to hope that you would both resolve my doubts, and pardon my intrusion. They respect the hero of the poem, More of More-hall. Mr. Bosvile tells. me there is a house at the bottom of Wharncliffe Wood, called More-hall, but that it was never, he believes, inhabited by a person of the name of More: I beg therefore to apply to you, for your opinion, whether it might not, at the time of the lawsuit, (tempore Jacobi I.) have been the residence of some lawyer, or other person, who took the lead in managing the suit in behalf of the parishioners against the Wortley family, that rented the impropriation, and that his real name (whatever it was) was disguised under that of More of More-hall. "I should esteem it a very great favour if you would oblige me with your opinion on this subject, and with any information that may occur to you, which may any way tend to illustrate this favourite old song. "I should now conclude, but am tempted to trespass on your patience a little longer. One of your name was Dean of Worcester in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. This was Thomas Wilson, D.D. who died in 1585, having been Dean of Worcester, if I remember right, about 14 or 15 years. He had been educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where I think he took the degree of A.B. in 1541; and, according to tradition, was of a Yorkshire family. As I have a particular interest in tracing his descent, I should be glad to know if you have any account of him, or could assist me in finding out what family in Yorkshire he might probably be descended from. He gave for his arms, Sable, a wolf salient or, with three mullets or, in chief. He had a brother, named Nicholas Wilson (who had a son, named John). The dean himself had several sons and daughters; the former were named Samuel, Thomas, Robert; the latter, Mary, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Judith. I mention these, as they may tend to show what family he sprang from, as Christian names sometimes serve, in subjects of this kind, for a clue. It is remarkable enough, that, at the very same time with the above Dean of Worcester, lived another Thomas Wilson, LL.D. who was Dean of Durham, and both gave the same arms, and should seem to be of the same family, from his giving his son the peculiar name of Nicholas. This last Thomas, indeed, was an eminent statesman, and probably might procure for his kinsman the deanery of Worcester, while he reserved himself for the richer deanery of Durham. "Will you have the goodness to excuse me for having troubled you on these subjects, and allow me to solicit the honour of a line, which will exceedingly oblige, Sir, "Your most obedient and humble servant, "T. PERCY." "P. S. Allow me to add, with regard to the above Dean of Worcester, that there is a tradition among his descendants (of whom I myself am one), that the Dean's father, or some near relation of his, had been concerned, in 1536, with the rest of the Yorkshire gentlemen, in what was called the Pilgrimage of Grace, or Ashe's rebellion; for which he was obliged to fly to Worcester for concealment ; and that the said Wilson was accompanied with two other gentlemen out of the North, the one named Percy (my own lineal ancestor), the other named Wingfield; that they all three came to Worcester in the disguise of sailors; and, settling in that city, their posterity intermarried, and continued to maintain a great friendship for many generations. Certain it is that the Dean's eldest daughter, Mary, married Edward Wingfield, Esq. and that a daughter of that marriage, Margaret Wingfield, became wife of my father's great-grandfather, Thomas Percy, who was mayor of Worcester in 1662. "Can you pardon all this impertinence in a mere stranger? "John Wilson, Esq. at Bromhead, near Wakefield, Yorkshire." "Mr. Wilson's reply is dated 14 Oct. 1777 :-supposes the Ballad to be much older than the time of James I. The tradition of this country is, that it was only a drinking bout, and that the person who then lived at Wharncliffe Lodge (who I suppose was a Wortley) was a very great drinker, or, as the country people here yet say of any one who eats, drinks, or works very hard, a dragon at it, and that More of More-hall encountered him, and that he died dead drunk :'-supposes John More of More-hall temp. Hen. VIII. to be the hero of the song; his daughter, Margaret, married John Wilson of Bromhead 14 Hen. VIII. Thomas More lived there temp. Eliz.; temp. Jac. I. it belonged to the Blounts. Mentions the Dragon's den, and Taylor the Water Poet's account of it. Sends some account of the two Wilsons, chiefly from printed authorities." "SIR, Easton Mauduit, Oct. 18, 1777. "Your most obliging favour of Oct. 14, merits my earliest acknowledgements. The circumstances you have communicated, concerning the situation of Wharncliffe, are curious and satisfactory. Yet I cannot think the present popular ballad of the Dragon of Wantley so old as the time of Hen. VIII. from the familiar (I had almost said modern) cast of the phraseology, easy flow of the versification, the smoothness of the style, which does not exhibit one obsolete word, or a single trait that savours of remote, or even moderate, antiquity. I should hardly have judged it, from any external appearance, so old even as the Restoration. To which, let me add, that in all Pepys's Collection of Ballads, consisting of many thousands, carefully preserved and arranged, (which I very minutely examined some years ago,) I did not find any copy of this ballad that had been ever printed in black letter. "There were one or two editions of it, in the most modern Roman type, in which the spelling was quite modern. So that I am almost certain that, let it have been composed when it would, it had never appeared in print till after the Restoration; otherwise I think we should have seen allusions to it in Hudibras, and other poems of that same time. Let me add, that I think several particulars in the description of the Dragon seem taken from Spenser's Fairy Queen.-See Book I. Canto II. "Upon the whole, I still suspect that the dispute about tithes might be alluded to in part, though a drinking bout might suggest the catastrophe of the story; and that the hero, Moor of Moor-hall, was either the last of the |