I took occasion to
spy around among the tombstones in the hope of discovering the last
resting-place of the curious old antiquary whose labors in the field of
balladry have placed me under so great a debt of gratitude to him.

But after I had searched in vain for somewhat more than an hour one of
the keepers of the place told me that in compliance with Ritson's
earnest desire while living, that antiquary's grave was immediately
after the interment of the body levelled down and left to the care of
nature, with no stone to designate its location. So at the present
time no one knows just where old Ritson's grave is, only that within
that vast enclosure where so many thousand souls sleep their last sleep
the dust of the famous ballad-lover lies fast asleep in the bosom of
mother earth.

I have never been able to awaken in Miss Susan any enthusiasm for
balladry. My worthy sister is of a serious turn of mind, and I have
heard her say a thousand times that convivial songs (which is her name
for balladry) are inspirations, if not actually compositions, of the
devil. In her younger days Miss Susan performed upon the melodeon with
much discretion, and at one time I indulged the delusive hope that
eventually she would not disdain to join me in the vocal performance of
the best ditties of D'Urfey and his ilk.

If I do say it myself, I had a very pretty voice thirty or forty years
ago, and even at the present time I can deliver the ballad of King
Cophetua and the beggar maid with amazing spirit when I have my friend
Judge Methuen at my side and a bowl of steaming punch between us. But
my education of Miss Susan ended without being finished. We two
learned to perform the ballad of Sir Patrick Spens very acceptably, but
Miss Susan abandoned the copartnership when I insisted that we proceed
to the sprightly ditty beginning,

Life's short hours too fast are hasting--
Sweet amours cannot be lasting.

My physician, Dr. O'Rell, has often told me that he who has a
well-assorted ballad library should never be lonely, for the
limitations of balladly are so broad that within them are to be found
performances adapted to every mood to which humanity is liable. And,
indeed, my experience confirms the truth of my physician's theory. It
were hard for me to tell what delight I have had upon a hot and gusty
day in a perusal of the history of Robin Hood, for there is such
actuality in those simple rhymes as to dispel the tro