In "Summer," be it remembered, the lover sits musing and hidden, beside a forest stream:

This cool retreat his MUSIDORA Sought:
Warm in her Cheek the sultry Season glow'd;
And, rob'd in loose array, she came to bathe
Her fervent Limbs in the refreshing Stream.
What shall he do? In sweet confusion lost,
And dubious flutterings, he a while remain'd.
A pure ingenuous Elegance of soul,
A delicate refinement known to few,
Perplex'd his breast, and urg'd him to retire:
But Love forbade. Ye Prudes in Virtue, say,
Say, ye severest, what would you have done?
Meantime, this fairer Nymph than ever blest
Arcadian Stream, with timid Eye around
The Banks surveying, strip'd her beauteous Limbs,
To taste the lucid Coolness of the Flood.

Ah then! not Paris on the shady Top
Of Ida panted stronger, when aside
The Rival Goddesses the Veil divine

Cast unconfin'd, and gave him all their charms,
Than, DAMON, thou; as from the snowy Leg,
And slender Foot th' inverted Silk she drew;
As the soft Touch dissolv'd the virgin Zone;
And thro' the parting Robe, th' alternate Breast,
With Youth wild-throbbing, on thy lawless Gaze
In full Luxuriance rose. But, desperate Youth,
How durst thou risque the Soul-distracting View;
As from her naked Limbs, of glowing White,
Harmonious swell'd by Nature's finest Hand,
In Folds loose-floating fell the fainter Lawn;
And fair-expos'd she stood, shrunk from herself,
With Fancy blushing, at the doubtful Breeze
Alarm'd, and starting like the fearful Fawn?
Then to the Flood she rush'd; the parted Flood
Its lovely Guest with closing Waves receiv'd;
And every Beauty softening, every Grace
Flushing anew, a mellow Luster shed:
As shines the Lily through the crystal mild;
Or as the Rose amid the Morning Dew,
Fresh from Aurora's Hand, more sweetly glows.

While thus she wanton'd, now beneath the Wave
But ill-conceal'd; and now with streaming Locks,
That half-embrac'd Her in a humid Veil,
Rising again, the latent DAMON drew
Such mad'ning Draughts of Beauty to the Soul,
As for a while o'erwhelm'd his raptur'd Thought
With Luxury too-daring. Check'd, at last,

By Love's respectful Modesty, he deem'd

The Theft profane, if aught profane to Love

Can e'er be deem'd; and, struggling from the Shade,

With headlong Hurry fled: but first these Lines,

Trac'd by his ready Pencil, on the Bank

With trembling Hand he threw.-"Bathe on, my Fair,

"Yet unbeheld save by the sacred Eye

"Of faithful Love: I go to guard thy Haunt,

To keep from thy Recess each vagrant Foot,

"And each licentious Eye." With wild Surprise,
As if to Marble struck, devoid of Sense,

A stupid Moment motionless she stood:

So stands the Statue that enchants the World,'
So bending tries to veil the matchless Boast,
The mingled Beauties of exulting Greece.
Recovering, swift she flew to find those Robes
Which blissful Eden knew not; and, array'd

"The Venus of Medicis" at Florence. Gainsborough painted a beautiful full-length of Musidora, as described in line 21 of our extract, with the "inverted silk." W. Kent, in the 1744 edition of "The Seasons: Summer," reduced and altered his elegant frontispiece to suit the changed text of the Musidora episode, retaining Damon's figure and the sitting nymph. He had earlier copied the Venus de' Medici for the standing figure. Compare our own sketches, pp. 132, 136, 141.

In careless Haste, th' alarming Paper snatch'd.
But, when her DAMON's well-known Hand she saw,
Her Terrors vanish'd, and a softer Train

Of mixt Emotions, hard to be describ'd,

Her sudden Bosom seiz'd: Shame void of Guilt,

The charming Blush of Innocence, Esteem
And Admiration of her Lover's Flame,
By Modesty exalted: even a Sense

Of self-approving Beauty stole across

Her busy Thought. At length, a tender Calm
Hush'd by degrees the Tumult of her Soul;
And on the spreading Beech, that o'er the Stream
Incumbent hung, she with the sylvan Pen
Of rural Lovers this Confession carv'd,

Which soon her DAMON kiss'd with weeping joy:
"Dear youth! sole Judge of what these Verses mean,
"By Fortune too much favour'd, but by Love,
"Alas! not favour'd less, be still as now

"Discreet: the Time may come you need not fly."1

Thomson's Summer was published in 1727: the first and second volumes of the Collection of Old Ballads had appeared in 1723, the Swimming-Lady on p. 133 of the second volume, as already mentioned. The third volume followed in 1725. By this collection the ballad was not improbably brought under Thomson's notice. If we could be absolutely certain that David Malloch (better known afterwards as "Mallet") was concerned in the editing of these ballads, it would powerfully strengthen our position; for Malloch and Thomson were united by friendship. Many editions of Winter, Thomson's earliest of the Seasons (1726), held poetical praises from Malloch; who had been his fellow-collegian in Edinburgh. Thomson writes, in the Preface

1 Thomson's Summer, as printed in 1744, lines 1279-1360, pp. 108-111. Lord Byron, or far more probably his friend, John Cam Hobhouse, in the Historical Notes to Childe Harold, Canto iv. stanza 49, remarks:-"The view of the Venus of Medicis instantly suggests the lines in the Seasons, and the comparison of the object with the description proves, not only the correctness of the portrait, but the peculiar turn of thought, and, if the term may be used, the sexual imagination of the descriptive poet. The same conclusion may be deduced from another hint in the same episode of Musidora; for Thomson's notions of the privileges of favoured love must have been either very primitive, or rather deficient in delicacy, when he made his grateful nymph inform her discreet Damon that in some happier moment he might perhaps be the companion of her bath:

The time may come you need not fly.'"

A later song-writer (R. B. Peake) described such a promiscuous bath, from a One-horse-Shay: "Mrs. Bubb was gay and free."

2 David Malloch could have had no hand in vols. i. and ii. of the Old Ballads, 1723. Malloch left Scotland in August, 1723, for London, and returned thither from near Winchester early in 1724. On 24th July of the same year, in Aaron

to his Winter, 1726, "It perhaps might be reckoned vanity in me to say how richly I value the approbation of a gentleman of Mr. Malloch's fine and exact taste, so justly dear and valuable to all those that have the happiness of knowing him; and who, to say no more of him, will abundantly make good to the world the early promise his admired piece of William and Margaret has given."

Hill's Plain Dealer, No. 36, he published his ballad of "William and Margaret " (at that time commencing—

When Hope lay hush'd in silent Night,

And Woe was wrapp'd in Sleep

In glided Marg' ret's pale-ey'd Ghost,
And stood at William's Feet).

In the same year, a few weeks or months later, it reappeared in the Hive, vol. i. 161 (first edition, 1724, in the Editor's possession), beginning,—

'Twas at the silent midnight-hour,
When all were fast asleep;

In glided Margret's grimly ghost,

And stood at William's feet.

A slight difference in the commencement meets us when "William and Margaret' reappears in vol. iii. of Roberts's Collection of Old Ballads, p. 218, 1725, two years after the Swimming Lady had been republished in vol. ii. It begins, lamely, When all was wrapt in dark Midnight,

And all were fast asleep, &c.

The ballad is not here (as at first by Aaron Hill, in the Plain Dealer) declared to be "old" or "ancient" and "from a Garland." It is the last of three Songs, inserted specially for the sake of those "who profess themselves Lovers, that they may learn to be Faithful, and to dread the Curses that attend inconstancy and broken Vows." In addition to its containing Malloch's ballad, this third volume holds a large group of genuine Scotch songs (not the mere London shamScotch ditties), such as had appeared in the previous year in honest Allan Ramsay's Tea-Table Miscellany, vol. i. 1724. We entertain no doubt that for the addition of these Scotch songs we have to thank David Mallet. His ""Twas at the fearful Midnight Hour was printed as "An Old Ballad," on p. 61 of the Second volume of T. T. Miscellany, 1725 (our own earliest miniature copy is the fifth edition, 1730). In all probability he himself brought to the notice of the Old Ballads' editor, when seeing his third volume of O. B. through the press, 1725, the Scotch songs contained in Allan Ramsay's own first volume, T. T. Misc., 1724. They immediately follow his own William and Margaret: which, at the same time, was being republished in Edinburgh.

See Fred Dimsdale's excellent reissue of "Ballads and Songs, by David Mallet," edit. 1857. Mr. Dimsdale had been unable, he mentions, to consult the first edition of The Hive, 1724; which is in our own private collection. Its version is not, as he believed it to be, "When all was wrapt in dark midnight," but, as already mentioned, "Twas at the silent midnight hour." The original suggestion is acknowledged to be a fragmentary verse, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, printed in 1613, viz.,

When it was grown to dark midnight,

And all were fast asleep,

In came Margaret's grimly ghost,

And stood at William's feet.

The date of publication, 1723, precludes us from imagining that Malloch could have had anything to do with the production of volumes i. and ii. of J. Roberts's Collection of Old Ballads; but we see no reason to doubt that the ostensible editor of them was, as traditionally reported, Ambrose Philips (or "Namby Pamby," as Pope wickedly nick-named him in the 1729 edition of the Dunciad, book iii. Later issues give Philips's name undisguisedly). The historical introductions to the ballads appear to bear the impress of his somewhat-affected style. He was even then engaged in similar historical researches, for his Tragedies. But the third volume of the Collection, 1725, shows an admixture from another hand, and this other we believe to have been Malloch's. The "Drinking-Songs" are withheld, for reasons given. Instead of them, a large group of genuine Scottish Songs is added, to complete the volume; and their appearance is in marked contrast with the D'Urfey sort of Scotticized balladry, such as "Bonnie Dundee," in the two previous volumes, 1723, published when Malloch had not left Edinburgh.

James Thomson, following him, arrived in London, poor and almost destitute, in this 1725. One of his earliest and warmest patrons was Aaron Hill, at that time intimate with Thomson's earlier friend Malloch, who probably brought the two poets together. Afterwards, even so late as 1740, the friendship between Thomson and Mallet remained unbroken, and in that year they were united in the composition of their "Masque of Alfred." In this appeared the song of "Rule Britannia!""When Britain first at Heaven's command"-a song deservedly and instantaneously popular, still continuing to be, in great measure, our National Anthem.

To sum up: 1st. We believe that Malloch became a subordinate editor or assistant on the third volume of Old Ballads, 1725, and introduced the genuine Scotch songs which closely follow his own already-celebrated "William and Margaret": the authorship of which had now been avowed in letters to Aaron Hill. Not improbably his friend Thomson had brought to London that very copy of the Tea-Table Miscellany, 1724, so recently published in Edinburgh, from which these Scotch songs were culled.

2nd. In the intimacy with Thomson, the volumes of Old Ballads would inevitably be shown to him by Malloch: who was essentially a ballad-writer, as well as a ballad-lover; and naturally interested, if merely because his own "William and Margaret" was therein.

3rd. If "The Swimming-Lady" of the 1723 vol. ii. did not suggest to Thomson the Musidora of 1730 (which we contend