[Bagford Collection, II. 107.]

Michaelmas Term:

The Cittizens Kind Welcome to Country-men that from all parts of the Land come hither about their needlesse occasions (needful, I mean) with a description of the seasons and manners of the people therein imployed.

(Ome hither, my Muse, if that thou be'st cold, And warm thy self well with Promethian Fire,

Which when thou hast done, let me be bold,
In matter of moment thy aid to require.
My mind is resolved to write on a Theam,
The which my expression I hope shall confirm,

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Those men that do come from all parts of the Realm,
I bid them all welcome to Michaelmas Term.

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The Tradesmen of London, with long Expectation,
Have lookt for the coming of this happy time,
They are sick at the heart of the tedious vexation,
But now on a sudden they'l be in their prime.
They think themselves happy (especially some,)
If Michaelmas rent and their dyet they earn,
But now they are glad, for their harvest is come,
The Country brings mony to Michaelmas Term.

[vacation]

The Inholders, Vintners, Victualers, and Cooks,
through want of imployment make griev[o]us complaint,
In all this long season they were off o' th' hooks,
But now their Red Lettice1 they do new paint,
Some set up new signes, or new florish the old,
And mend their old houses, if they be infirm,
To venture their mony they dare wel be bold,
In hope to regain it in Michaelmas Term.

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1 Red Lettice, in ballad, but often spelt Lattice. "In old times the ale-house windows were generally open, so that the company within might enjoy the fresh air, and see all that was going on in the street; but, as the scenes within were not always fit to be seen by the profanum vulgus' that passed by, a trellis was put up in the open window. This trellis, or lattice, was generally painted red."-Hist. of Signboards, 1866; by J. Larwood and J. C. Hotten (n.d. edit., p. 375). The colour is suggested to have been chosen in order that it might harmonize with the customers' noses. But the true reason was, no doubt, the same which still rules in rural inn-parlours and tap-rooms: to give an attractive look of warmth to the place of entertainment, when seen from the outside by wet and chilled and weary wayfarers, so soon as candles are lighted behind the red lattice or curtain. The term became equivalent to ale-house or public. Thus Marston, "As well known by my wit as an ale-house by a red-lattice": Antonio and Mellida, 1633. "Trusty Rachel was drinking burnt brandy with a couple of tinder-box cryers at the next red lattice": Tom Brown. "A whole street is in some places but a continuous ale-house, not a shop to be seen between red-lattice and red-lattice": Thomas Decker, English Villanies, seven severall, &c., 1638. Thus the expression, "your red-lattice phrases," means such idle chat and ribaldry as might be flung out from an ale-house window to the passers-by. We read of a "Green Lattice," in Brownlow Street, Holborn, corrupted into "The Green Lettuce."

2 The repainting of signs, not otherwise changing them (which seems to have been prohibited without special permission), brought plenty of money to wielders of the brush; unless they had already such arrears of "chalk" as equalled their charge for oil-paint. By and before 1770 corporations struck a deadly blow at these sign-painters, ordering words not emblems to be exhibited. Three memorable "signs " in literature, are Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley transformed into the Saracen's head, the Sir William Wallace of poor Dick Tinto, in the "Tales of my Landlord;" and last, not least, the Black-Prince painted by "Forsyth the forger" in the Prologue to Francillon's "Olympia."

The Tapsters, Ostlers, and Chamberlains al,
Chiefly about Holborn, Fleet-street, and the Strand,
Since Trinity Term had takings but smal,
Which caus'd many of them to run behind hand.
But now they are jovial, and take heart a grace,
And both nimble gestures and speeches they learn,
Their gains now come tumbling in a great pace,
Long time they have wished for Michaelmas Term.

Some Atturnies, and some that solicite Law cases,
That al the Vacation in the Country plods,
They, like to King Janus, can use double faces,
And strive to set Neighbour with Neighbor at ods.
Now hither they come, with their bags full of Law,
But the profits they all to themselves do confirm,
Although it be but for a Trusse of Rye straw,'
The case must be try'd at Michaelmas Term.

1 As to the frivolous claims of these litigious farmers take this instance: "I heard a tale of a butcher, who, driving two calves over a common that were coupled together by the neckes with an oken with, in the way where they should passe, there lay a poore, leane mare, with a galde backe; to whom they comming (as chance fell out), one of one side, and the other of the other, smelling on her, (as their manner is) the midst of the with, that was betwixt their neckes, rubd her and grated her on the sore backe, that shee started and rose up, and hung them both on her backe as a beame; which, being but a rough plaister to her raw ulcer, she ran away with them (as she were frantick) into the fens, where the butcher could not follow them, and drownde both her selfe and them in a quagmyre. Now, the owner of the mare is in law with the butcher for the losse of his mare, and the butcher enterchangeably endites him for his calves."-T. Nashe's Pierce Penilesse's Supplication, 1592.

There is a close resemblance to the above passage in the following, which is probably from the same earlier original. It is in old Lowland Scotch, from Sir James Balfour's Practicks of the Law of Scotland, and there entitled "A Merrie Questioun anent the Burning of a Miln:"

"Gif it happin that ony man be passand in the King's gait or passage, drivand befoir him twa sheip festnit and knit togidder, be chance ane horse, havand ane sair bak, is lying in the said gait, and ane of the sheip passis be the ane side of the horse, and the uther sheip be the uther side, swa that the band quhairwith they are bund tuich or kittle his sair bak, and he thairby movit dois arise, and caryis the said sheip with him heir and thair, until at last he cumis and enteris in ane miln havand ane fire, without ane keipar, and skatteris the fire, quhairby the miln, horse, sheip, and all is brunt; Quæritur, Quha sall pay the skaith? Respondetur, The awner of the horse sall pay the sheip, because his horse sould not have been lying in the King's hie streit, or commoun passage; and the millar sall pay for the miln and the horse, and for all uther damnage and skaith, because he left ane fire in the miln without ony keipar."-Walford, Insur. Cyclop., iv. 10.

The rambling Clerks, that for lodging and dyet
Have run on the Ticket with Vitlers and Cooks,
Besides now and then for some overplus royot,
Some of them have pawn'd their gowns & their books.
O now they are frollick, and sing care away1
For Country Clients about them do swarm.
Now all their old scores they'l be able to pay,
Their hands are so nimble in Michaelmas Term.

THE SECOND PART: TO THE SAME TUNE.

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1 In Forbes's Songs and Fancies, known as the Aberdeen Cantus,' 1662, is the "Cast away Care," beginning "Care, away go thou from me." In Wit's Interpreter, 1655, "Care, Care, go pack, thou art no mate for me!" Another, "Sing Care away, let us be glad," is in Wit and Drollery, 1661, p. 79. Almost all the Cantus songs are from English books of earlier date. The "Cast away Care" is in MSS., at Dublin and Edinburgh, one being of 1639. Playford's Musical Companion, 1689, has " Begone, Old Care."

He three-peny Ordinaries1 are so full throng'd,

get one

Your Country-men proudly do scorn to be wrong'd, and yet their own bellies they basely wil cheat. The Lawyers' hands are stil itching for fees,

which makes the plain husbandman let out his farm To come up to London to eat bread and cheese,

while Lawyers eat Rost meat in Michaelmas Term.

The dainty fine Girls that keep shop in the Change,
against this quick season have been exercis'd,
To furnish their coffers with fashions al strange,
the finest and rarest that can be devis'd,
They keep their old Ditty, Sir, what is't you lack?
which Country people are greedy to learn,
The husband must carry the wife some new knack,
or else he's not welcome from Michaelmas Term.

The jovial Watermen trim up their Botes, and to be more pliant in plying their fares,

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With strong beer and Ale they do licker their throats, for which they wil wander to the Ale-house by pairs.3

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And, if the frost do not their labour prevent,* abundance of mony they daily wil earn,

Which in the vacation wil freely be spent,

and then they wil think upon Michaelmas Term.

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1 These are mentioned, as being common, by Tom Brown in A Walk round London and Westminster. "That place is a Tavern

thither Bullies coach it to kick Drawers, to lavish away that scandalous Incom called a Petticoat-Pention, tho' doomed the next day to a three-penny Ordinary."-T. Brown's Works, 2nd ed., iii. 4.

2 See footnote on p. 243, antè.

3 Vide antè, The Waterman's Delight, pp. 254-60: especially 259, last stanza. The "pairs" here are both watermen, flushed with coin, and paying for themselves. The Bagford Waterman was a cupboard-lover, and cared for the pretty lass's "chink." She paid for all (like Dame Quickly) "in purse and in person.' She could afford it, and did what she pleased.

Nowhere can be found a more spirited and amusing account of the Watermen and their interchange of coarse greetings and ribaldry than in Tom Brown's "The Thames;" part of his Pleasant Walk round London and Westminster, Lashing the Town: about 1697.

For a reprint of broadside-ballads (most of which are in the Ashmolean and British Museum collections) on the Great Frost of 1683-4, and "The Waterman's Rejoicing on the Thaw," by J. Norris, beginning. "Come, ye merry men all Of Waterman's Hall," see Percy Society, vol. ix. 1844.

BAGFORD.

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