and
which, as his favourite easy chair, he highly valued'; and (2) that
'The Ladies' Petition' was printed nearly _verbatim_ from a manuscript
in the handwriting of the poet ... If really Gay's, they [the verses]
may, we think, a great many of them, be safely regarded as the
production of his youth, written, perhaps, during the somewhat
extended visit to Devonshire which preceded his introduction to the
literary world of Pope. The least doubtful piece, 'The Ladies'
Petition' was probably 'thrown off' upon the occasion of his visit to
Exeter in 1715."

If the verses are genuine, they have such biographical interest as is
afforded by an allusion to a youthful love-affair. There are lines "To
Miss Jane Scott":--

The Welsh girl is pretty.
The English girl fair,
The Irish deem'd witty,
The French _debonnaire_;

Though all may invite me,
I'd value them not;
The charms that delight me
I find in a SCOT.

It is presumedly to the same young lady he was referring in the verses
written probably shortly after he returned to London after his visit to
Devonshire:--

ABSENCE.

Augustus, frowning, gave command.
And Ovid left his native land;
From Julia, as an exile sent.
He long with barb'rous Goths was pent.

So fortune frown'd on me, and I was driven
From friends, from home, from Jane, and happy Devon!
And Jane, sore grieved when from me torn away;--
loved her sorrow, though I wish'd her--GAY.

That another girl there was may be gathered from the "Letter to a Young
Lady," who was not so devoted as Jane Scott, for the poet writes:

Begging you will not mock his sighing.
And keep him thus whole years a-dying!
"Whole years!"--Excuse my freely speaking.
Such tortures, why a month--a week in?
Caress, or kill him quite in one day,
Obliging thus your servant, JOHN GAY.

[Footnote 1: Risdon: _Survey of Devon_ (1811), p. 243.]

[Footnote 2: Gribble: _Memorials of Devonshire_.]

[Footnote 3: _Gay's Chair_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 4: _Gay's Chair_, p. 13.]

[Footnote 5: _Notes and Queries_, N.S. VI, 488, December 16th, 1882,
from the _North Devon Herald_ of December 7th.]

[Footnote 6: Aaron Hill (1685-1750), dramatist and journalist.]

[Footnote 7: Charles Douglas, third Duke of Queensbury and second Duke
of Dover (1698-1777), married Catherine, second daughter of Henry Hyde,
Earl of Clarendon and Rochester.]

[Footnote 8: A