BALLAD OF DICK AND THE DEVIL

Looking over some of your back numbers, I find (No. 11. p. 172.) an inquiry concerning a ballad with this title. I have never met with it in print, but remember some lines picked up in nursery days from an old nurse who was a native of "the dales." These I think have probably formed a part of this composition. The woman's name was curiously enough Martha Kendal; and, in all probability, her forebears had migrated from that place into Yorkshire:— "Robin a devil he sware a vow. He swore by the *sticks*[2] in hell— By the *yelding* that crackles to mak the *low*[3], That warms his *namsack*[4] we…