Invention of Steam Power

The following doggerel is the burden of a common street-ditty, among the boys of Campden, in Gloucestershire. "Jonathan Hulls, With his paper skulls, Invented a machine To go against wind and stream; But he, being an ass, Couldn't bring it to pass, And so was asham'd to be seen." Now this Jonathan Hulls was the great grandfather of a man of the same name, now residing in Campden; so that if there be any truth in the tradition, the application of steam power to the propulsion of hulls must be long prior to the time of *Watts his name!* Can any reader of NOTES AND QUERIES throw any light on the…