Darby and Joan

I never heard of the tradition mentioned by H. I can only suppose that the poet referred to was the first person who introduced the ballad at the manor-house. Helaugh Nichols, an excellent authority in such matters, whose trade traditions, through the Boyers, father and son, went back a century and a half, tells us that the ballad was supposed to have been written by Henry Woodfall, while an apprentice to Darby. The Darbys were printers time out of mind—one Robert Darby was probably an assistant to Wynkyn de Worde, who certainly left a legacy to a person of that name. The Woodfalls, too, can b…